An Unconventional Pet Story

When I tell you I'm not a snake person, believe me I'm not. My friend had a pet snake and every time he brought it into the room I was in I would have a panic attack. I would of much rather preferred a "normal" pet like a dog. However, this is the story of how I got my own unconventional pet snake.

My boyfriend and I moved into our own place and we wanted to get a pet. He'd always expressed his love of reptiles to me and dreamed of owning a pet snake. I'd always push back and suggest something like a bearded dragon or a gecko instead. One day, we went down to our local fish and reptile centre. They would buy reptiles and fish from rescue shelters and sell them on. Upon arriving, we walked through the front door and were greeted with the fish room. All the fish were kept in uncleaned, dirty tanks and the fish you could see through all the grime appeared to dead or close to it. Whilst looking around trying to find the reptile section an ominous, slender and tall man made his way over to us. He introduced himself as the owner and after a lengthy conversation he revealed he didn't care much for reptiles and much preferred fish. This had me worried because if this was the awful conditions he kept the animals he self-proclaimed to prefer than what conditions were the reptiles kept in?

Once we revealed we were looking for a reptile he scoffed at us and said in a solemn voice "follow me." He started to lead us down some dark, creaky stairs that felt like with every step you were going to fall straight through. The man fumbled around for his keys and before unlocking the door he looked back at us with this nervous but crooked smile. Once opening the door he revealed a poorly-lit, cold and sad room where the reptiles were kept. We were led straight over to the snakes and we couldn't believe our eyes. Every snake no matter what the size were kept in tiny plastic containers which were clearly meant for new-borns. I disclosed my fear of snakes and without hesitation he pulled out the smallest one there and placed him in the palm of my hand. The miniscule animal wasn't even the size of my hand. He went on to say that the snake I was holding was the runt of the litter and refused to grow. We assumed it was because of the tiny box he was being kept in. As I looked into this poor soul's eyes I could feel all the discomfort he was experiencing. After looking at the rest of the reptiles, we left empty handed because we couldn't afford the extortionate prices he was expecting. If we could we would of bought every animal in there to stop the suffering. We both left that place in shock of how horrendous he was to all the animals.

The next week, I'm on my break at work and suddenly my phone rings. Before I get a chance to say hello, Liam tells me he got the snake I held. He frantically explained he couldn't just stand by after seeing the horrid conditions he was kept in. I agreed and once I was done at work I rushed home as fast as I could. After putting our minute pet in his new vivarium and waiting a few days we realised something was wrong. He hadn't moved at all from his hide even for food. After a closer inspection from Liam we noticed the poor thing had mites all over him. He was being eaten alive. After a couple of mite treatment baths, they kept coming back somehow. We found a few behind his eyes and thought that was what we kept missing. It would explain why he couldn't see properly. We got rid of them and after a few more mite treatment baths we thought he was okay. A few days later, he was back to being covered in mites and it seemed worse than the last time we treated him. We were stumped and couldn't figure out where they kept coming from. Until we looked at the bag of substrate we got from the same place we bought him from. The bag was infested with them and when I say infested, I mean they had started an entire colony in there. We immediately threw away the bag of substrate, cleaned out the vivarium and after a couple more mite treatment baths and new substrate he was a healthy and happy snake finally. He began eating like he should and seemed more affectionate. He was curious about things and would come out of his hide to say hello regularly. We called him Merlin but I shall save the story of the origin if his name for another time.

I am so thankful to our beautiful snake because he pushed me outside my comfort zone and helped me conquer my fear of snakes. We helped him too and I'm convinced that even though he is a reptile he knows and appreciates that. We still own Merlin to this day and we have had no problems with him since.