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Post by pitbulllady on Jul 15, 2005 0:30:05 GMT -5
I found out, through the World Wildlife Organization, that this coming Saturday, July 16, is Official World Snake Day ;D! It's about time, if you ask me!
pitbulllady
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Sparky
Randall's Skivvy (0-299)
...Rar, I say.
Posts: 93
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Post by Sparky on Jul 15, 2005 9:24:00 GMT -5
Yay!!! Okay that's it then, I'm buying Duchess some driftwood for her house now. I've meant to do it forever, now I have to. At least I already got around to giving her a nice foresty background, it looks pretty nice in there now! And I'll give her the biggest f/t mouse I can find.
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Beboots
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a plague in Equatorial Guinea that I have to attend.
Posts: 646
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Post by Beboots on Jul 15, 2005 11:30:50 GMT -5
July Sixteenth, you say? That's also the day Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes out. ^_^ Well, in the spirit of the day (and my own fangirlishness), I hope that Parseltongue (the ability to speak to snakes that was introduced in the second book but never really developed, unfortunately) plays a much larger part in the sixth book. ;D
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Post by RandallBoggs on Jul 15, 2005 12:21:20 GMT -5
"Although I'm not fully a snake......HONOR ME! Heh heh"
But your already honored here.....
".....Well......WORHSHIP ME hah ha!"
He'll never learn....
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Post by lizardgirl on Jul 16, 2005 9:37:22 GMT -5
About time is right! So, what is anyone planning to do in honour of Snake Day? ;D
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Post by RandallBoggs on Jul 16, 2005 12:31:36 GMT -5
Yeah? Who's doing this?
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Post by pitbulllady on Jul 16, 2005 19:14:11 GMT -5
It's sponsored by the World Wildlife Organization and is recognized in many different countries. I celebrated by attending a large reptile show in Columbia, South Carolina. I brought home four new beauties, including a lovely Sonoran Whipsnake(a relative of the Coachwhips), a really, REALLY pregnant Florida Blue Garter, who's blue is about the same shade as Randall's tail, and a pair of Eastern Coachwhips about 8-9 feet long each. The guy I got the Coachwhips from was scared half to death of them, and would only pick them up with snake tongs(like what you use to handle rattlers and other venomous stuff), and held them tightly behind their heads. He SWORE I was gonna get bitten and chewed to bits when I just held them loosely and let them glide through my hands like a Cornsnake, but the only bites I got were from mosquitoes, LOL! I totally don't get what it is about Coachwhips that strikes such fear into even seasoned "snake people"; there were guys at the show who breed nothing but highly-venomous species, like Formosan Cobras and Mojave Rattlers, who were telling me I was nuts for free-handling large Coachwhips, which aren't even venomous. One guy kept telling everyone that if they wanted to practice for handling something like a Black Mamba, the fastest and one of the most deadly snakes in the world(one that scares even Steve Irwin), to get a Coachwhip. PUH-Leeasse! I do NOT think I'd be sitting behind a booth at a large public event with a Black MAMBA curled up on my lap like a kitten, which is what one of those bad-*** Coachwhips ended up doing! I also bought a set of large snake tongs, for humanely capturing and lifting venomous snakes that are too heavy for the snake hook, so I can take them and release them somewhere safe, since I find many large Canebrake Rattlers in my yard each year about this time. And, of course I can't leave the spiders out, even though it's not International Spider Day. There were LOTS of tarantulas and scorpions here, and LOTS of snake people who are totally creeped out by them, which is pretty funny! Nothing like seeing some 300-pound, pierced-and-tattooed dude with a rattlesnake t-shirt scream like a little two-year-old girl at the sight of a middle-aged red-headed chick holding a tarantula! I got another Metallic Pinktoe tarantula(which has the coolest ever scientific name-Avicularia metallica) and this bizarre critter called a "Whip scorpion", which looks like a big black scorpion but instead of a stinger has a harmless threadlike tail. He's sitting on top of my DVD player munching a cricket right now-STRANGEST-looking thing, like something H.R. Geiger would think up! I'll have to get some new pics up on my DA site as soon as the newcomers settle in a bit.
pitbulllady
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Beboots
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a plague in Equatorial Guinea that I have to attend.
Posts: 646
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Post by Beboots on Jul 16, 2005 22:56:24 GMT -5
Sounds absolutely fascinating - post the pictures soon, Pitbulllady! So, at last count, how many creatures do you have hanging around your house?
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Post by pitbulllady on Jul 17, 2005 11:27:48 GMT -5
I took a few pics last night, but then that little sign came on my camera telling me the batteries were low, so I had to stop. I'd just recharged the batteries, but I guess it didn't "take", so as soon as Wal-Mart opens at 1:30(we have a 330-year-old state law in SC which prohibits stores from selling anything other than medicine or food between the hours of 1:30 and 6:00 pm on Sundays, except in certain counties, on religious principals, though how this gets by the "separation of Church and State", I have no clue)I'll have to go get new lithium batteries.
pitbulllady
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Post by RandallBoggs on Jul 17, 2005 11:33:42 GMT -5
This sounds like a very interesting and finally recieved celebration.
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Sparky
Randall's Skivvy (0-299)
...Rar, I say.
Posts: 93
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Post by Sparky on Jul 17, 2005 12:59:03 GMT -5
I did an online search the other day looking for info about this World Snake Day and came up with nothing. Oh well, I believe you anyways. Whipscorpions are cool, I like those. I may get a tarantula later, I have a spare 20L sitting around that needs some life in it (and I love pinktoes!). Duchess celebrated WSD by eating a mouse, lol. And soaking in her "sauna" (aka the dogdish). My brother and I got to catch like the last half hour of a reptile show once here in Sac. I'd like to get a little more time next time...
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Post by RandallBoggs on Jul 17, 2005 13:09:51 GMT -5
I think it's relatively new right?
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Post by pitbulllady on Jul 17, 2005 17:16:03 GMT -5
Yep, this is the first year it's been held, and about time, too.
I've got some pics, but DA is acting up BIG-TIME today, ever since I got up this morning. I've rebooted the computer, so I know it's not that, but the site. It won't show thumbnails, just that gray box. Once they get their mess straightened out I'll upload some new snake pics. I have some good ones of some of the Eastern Coachwhips and I just took some of the Sonoran, and I will be getting some of the Whipscorpion and the Florida Blue Garter, too, although I don't have any decent backgrounds other than newspapers. I hate to move the Garter around or mess with her too much, since she looks like she's ready to explode as it is, LOL! She's probably got 30 or more babies in there; I just hope she got bred to another blue, so the babies will turn out blue as well. She makes my little brownish-gold South Carolina Garter looks sorta dull. My Sonoran Whipsnake just ate a mouse, by the way, which is a good thing, being that he's new here. It's hard enough to get specimens of this species that eat rodents in the first place; most are lizard-eaters only. Both the Metallic Pinktoe and the Whipscorpion have been chowing down non-stop on crickets. They were both pretty thin. Lots of invertebrate dealers hardly ever feed their spiders and stuff once they get 'em in from importers or field collectors; they just hope to sell them as quickly as possible, but they have so little tied up in them, that they don't worry if they die. The guy I got the spider from takes better care of his than a lot of large wholesalers, but that was still one hungry and thirsty fuzzball when I got her home! I really wish I'd gotten two of the Avicularia metallicas, now, since they were at a good price, and I won't likely ever find them at that price again, and they were young subadults, which means that the females have many long years ahead of them. Avics are so neat-they just do NOT bite! The guy I took them to to check their sex is a tarantula and general spider expert who had some small mammals(Sugar Gliders, Hedgehogs, that sort of thing)for sale at the show, since he's moved his business to a new locale and wants to specialize more in inverts. He's just like, 27 years old, and he's recognized world-wide as an authority on tarantulas, especially captive breeding. He just picks up these Avics like you'd pick up a piece of paper, although very gently, of course, but with absolutely no fear of being bitten. One of 'em did leap out of his hand(these boogers are arboreal spiders, and can leap more than 6 feet, which is phenomenal compared to the size of the spider)and landed on my face, which *I* thought was sorta funny, but not half as funny as the reaction of the 300-pound, covered-with-tattoos biker dude who was standing there watching! THIS guy shrieked just like a little girl, and jumped backwards himself about six feet, nearly clobbering some other people who were there, and causing everyone in this large place to just freeze, because they all thought the worst had happened and one of the venomous snakes had gotten loose and bitten someone(which has NEVER occured at any of these shows, by the way)! Guess he just wasn't a "spider person", LOL!
pitbulllady
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Sparky
Randall's Skivvy (0-299)
...Rar, I say.
Posts: 93
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Post by Sparky on Jul 17, 2005 18:28:42 GMT -5
Ahahaha. I so wish I could hang out with you. They call me Spider-lady everywhere, I collect spider stuff in general and decorate with anything spider-related I can find. (And yet I've never *had* a pet spider...well, one day.)
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Post by pitbulllady on Jul 17, 2005 18:44:12 GMT -5
NO ONE Ever has "a" pet spider. Tarantulas are like potato chips-you cannot have just one! It always starts OUT with "just one", but that "one" soon becomes LOTS of 'em! They are addictive, I swear they are!
pitbulllady
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