New Snake

Well, yesterday was the reptile show. We were a little worried about the turnout this year. It seems that since breeders have discovered all the ball python mutations, they have taken over the show. Its hard to see anything else there.


The expo was bigger than we expected, which was good. It was still ~70% ball python mutations, and probably ~15% corn snake mutations.


I was keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect Western Hognose. I wanted one that was at least a year old, male, and that the breeder could gaurentee a diet of mice on.


Hognose snakes in the wild eat toads, and it can be very difficult to get them to eat mice. Most breeders, to switch them over, keep pinkies in a container with toads, until they smell like the amphibians.


Finally, I found the perfect one, and one of the more pretty ones, with a beautiful orangy coloration.


The breeder was willing to hold him whilst I collected other various things.


He now has a happy home in my room and has been dubbed Smaug.

Smaug's Introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBqttSlGgvs

Smaug's First Feed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N15MfuK0OAk

For more info on Smaug see his journal/blog at: http://smaugthesnake.blogspot.com/

Rant-ish

I guess this could be seen as another rant. Whatever. There's actually less cussing involved in this one, probably because I'm tired, and annoyed and on my period. Plus I haven't eaten today, so that just makes me want to pout and sleep. >.<

I was happy. I found a freakin Fender Stratocaster, and I bloody wanted it. I really REALLY wanted it. And it was/is a good price too.

I've wanted a black electric guitar for AGES. Or at least ~6 years. Dad said "Where will you get the money?" I informed him I'd sell my games. Hell, I'd even sell my Nintendo DS I secretly bought last year for christmas. I wanted that guitar.

So, me, being the naive fucking child that I am, I went to GameStop, thinking they were AMAZING and with ~7 games worth $20 bucks new and a DS worth $120 new I'd easily have enough to buy my guitar.

How fucking WRONG I was.

They wanted to give me $21 for all 7 games (~$3 per game, and they aren't even that used. Some were only played once or twice). And then they only wanted to give me $20 for my DS. WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So of course, I decided not to sell them to GameStop. But then that left me with a problem. How to get my guitar money?

Well, my darling father suggested Ebay. So I made my PayPal account, and my Ebay account and spent the rest of the afternoon listing games to sell.

The shitty part is, I don't know how long the guitar's going to be available. Which means by the time I finally get the money, the guitar will be gone.

>.<

Sometimes I really hate life. I mean, sure, it's just a guitar. But its something I've wanted for a LONG time.

And now its right in front of me, and I can't have it.

How cruel.

Twitch

P.S. - if anyone is interested, my Ebay account name is blacknightwolfen. Feel free to check it out. I haven't listed the DS yet cause I dont want to sell it unless I have to. Which is most likely going to happen anyway. >.<

New Blog

It's late and I'm tired, so this wont be long.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I finally made that wildlife blog. Feel free to bookmark it, I'm sure there will be constant updates.

http://wildlifebytwitch.blogspot.com/

Lemme know what you think of the picture (title) for there and here. I made them both myself. I also shot the wolf photo on the wildlife blog.

Twitch

Warning, Rant and Foul Content Below

Okay, so I decided to go to the zoo. I even got up early because at 10 they were having a cougar show. I got up at 8, showered, did my hair, and left.

When I got there I discovered that even with a $1 coupon the entrance fee was $18. That’s fucking unheard of unless you’re like, the San Diego or Australia zoo. Most zoo’s aren’t good enough to charge that much.

So, I get there, and look around on my way to the cougar show. They only had one white tiger, and he was so far back you could barely see him.

The cougars were unimpressive. A guy just stood there and talked about them, telling me nothing new. The cats took meat off a stick through the fence. Really anti-climatic after you’ve been licked and nipped by one.

I walked around and was very unimpressed by the animals. It was hotter than Hades and I was in a navy shirt, but I wanted to see the animals. Little did I know they had a piss poor collection. They didn’t even have a reptile exibit. The only way to see then was a show later on.

The shows were relatively boring and the keepers didn’t seem to want to talk much. The girl with the tigers told me they are wild animals and are not tame. They WILL kill you if you go in with them. I’m sorry, but if I ever run a zoo, you will go in with your animal. Yes there is danger, but the benefits outweigh the costs. For example, if a vet needs to give a shot, the keeper can assist and the animal may not have to be tranquilized. Which means less stress on the animal, and less health risks.

And the worst part is, the AZA tells people DON’T GO TO PLACES NOT SPONSERED BY US CAUSE THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT WILDLIFE. HOWEVER, the AZA does not support human-animal contact. Well you know what? FUCK THEM. I dont NEED them. I'll start my own zoo/park and it'll be the best fucking zoo around. The equivalent of the Australia Zoo. Steve loved his animals. I dunno how many clips I've seen of him playing with the dingoes, or running with the camels. That's why my zoo will be like. Its not about the people, its about the animals, and zoos these days just dont seem to get that. But back to Naples...

Even the alligators weren’t impressive, though the keepers fed them by hand, they had large sticks in case the gator tried to come up to far on the bank. ooooh, gators. Come on! I fucking canoed with them, AT NIGHT!

Finally they had a snake show. This I went too, and it was nice to see some snakes. They had a ball python (OMG, REALLY?! *snorts*) a huge 5ft milk snake, a copperhead, a cottonmouth, and an eastern diamond back.

Of course, when an idiot (trust me, they were dummer than shit.) asks if the ball python bites, they answer his question, but when I ask something intelligent like “If you’re holding a copperhead or a cottonmouth by the tail do they have the ability to come back up over their own bodies and tag you” it doesn’t get answered. The keeper either didn’t have any idea what I was asking, or didn’t know the answer.

Then he gets quite rude and insulting when I ask if they have any of the big diamondbacks. You know, 8 footers or something. He insults my sources and tells me that there never has been a 9ft eastern db and the only 8 ft one died back in some date I don’t remember.

THE FUCKING GIFT SHOP HAD MORE ANIMALS THAN THE DUMBASS ZOO! And even the gift shop sucked. MY GOD, how has this zoo survived for 40 years? It fucking sucks. Gatorland was better. Montgomery, little old piss ass Montgomery zoo was better. They had tons of animals. I loved Montgomery. and the Sanford Zoo.

Biggest waste of my time and money ever. I should have just slept in this morning.

FUCK!

Hot Dogs and Love Bites

Well my friends, today marked a turning point, or at least a major landmark in my life. For the first time since my existance started 19 years ago, I have been granted the ability to do something I've always wanted to do. I got to touch and hug a wolf.

The Shy Wolf Sanctuary welcomed me with open arms and seemed to be very impressed with the fact that I came all the way down from the Sanford/Orlando Area and rented a hotel room for a week just to volunteer with them.

I was immediatly introduced to Charlene, who took me around and showed me the animals there. the first two I met were wolfdogs, and they were Shy and Shadow.


Shadow in the foreground, Shy in the background.


Me hugging Shy, who is anything but.

As we walked, she explained to me the history of the animals that had come to be there. The majority of the animals there have been taken in from homes that no longer want them, and over half of those came from abusive homes.

But I enjoyed getting to meet some of these wonderful animals. They were really something else.
Everyone was fairly hot and they immensly enjoyed hotdog treats. Oh, and I thought I should mention, these lucky critter get chicken, and all I have to do is cut the fat off. Much easier than rats and scissors. XD

Here are a few last pictures of the wolves:







After meeting our canine companions, I was introduced to a carnivore of slightly larger standing. The cougars. Now, for technicality, the only cougar known as a panther is the Florida panther, otherwise the name panther refers to leopards. Out west, cougars as known as pumas, but they are still the same species.

I got a few pictures, but not really any good ones, so here's a video of our introduction. The first cougar shown is a male, the only one at the sanctuary, the other two later in the film are both female, and though they are referred to as sisters, they are not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VThCPI7Kxls

And that was really it for the cougars. One of them did pinch me, and it hurt a bit, but we stopped her before she did anything else. When they pinch you, they come up to you and kinda bite/nibble you. One of the cougars also considered pouncing on me from a rather high perch, so its quite obvious they thought I'd be tasty.

And last but not least, I got to meet the smallest residents of Shy Wolf Sanctuary. The foxes. There was Dickens, an arctic fox. He's black because it's summer. In the winter he'll be white again. The others were two small fennic foxes, who were cute, but annoyed at having to be away during the day.

Fennic Fox (Ricochet or Joey, can't tell), sorry its blurry.

Dickens the arctic fox trying to steal a beer.



And once again, the oh so cute Dickens.

And now, at last, I leave you with one final video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0VeXAhmVww

And yes, they do this everytime they here sirens.