Rest in Peace, my Smooshy

I have mentioned Kona a few times in the blog, but as she is not really a snake, she hadn't been in a lot of things.

She passed away last night from Congestive Heart Failure. She was only three years old.

Joel and I are heartbroken, as we are avid animal lovers.

Please take this time to kiss your critters, and know that you may think you have plenty of time with them, when in fact it may just be brief.

We are honored and humbled by our time with Kona, as she was one of the most loving, funny, beautiful dogs we have had the pleasure of knowing.

I will be dedicating this blog to her today.

We love you, Smooshy.

Hatchings!

This weekend was face paced, a good time, and not a lot of snake.

I met some people, did some stuff, bought my dress, and had a grand ole' time.

But I did have some hatchlings, a few of which are out, and many of which are not.

Here are the few that are.

We have a Pastel Orange Ghost male, and a Het Ghost something.

He is pretty sexy, if I do say so myself. It appears that there may be one more in the egg..

And just for fun, a random shot of Kona dog, wiping her paws and laughing.

I'm sorry this blog was so brief. I'm hoping to compile some Daytona pictures to share from friends.

Tomorrow should be an exciting one!

Get R Dun

So yesterday, Kona came into the snake room and was like "Get R Dun, Momma."

So I did.

I went in there with my camera (of course) and got as many photos as I could.

I was able to get this shot of these lovers in embrace. I cannot WAIT for these eggs. The male is a Spider 100% het TSK Axanthic 50% het Albino. He's in with my Axanthic poss het but didn't prove out so isn't a Het Albino in my opinion Female.

And on to the artsy photos that I shot...

This gal is one of my lighter Spiders I own, and she was actually for sale for a bit before I took her off the market. I have many Spiders, and she is still one of them.

Peek-a-boo!

And who could do a shoot with Spiders without a Bumblebee? This gal is still looking hot after a year, and will be in rotation next year. Not sure for what, but sure that she will be making some pretty babies!

And last but not least, a Fire to get things heated up around here. Focus wasn't the best, but the colors were popping, so I am happy to share. This gal I hope to be able to use next year as well, although she is a bit smaller than the Bumblebee above.

Crossing all crossables.

So there you go, my friends.

Until tomorrow, have a great day!

Fuzz World Cup and cool shed

Well, its back to waiting for more clutches, but there have been a few cool things happening around here.

I found the Cinny female I bred late having her post ovulation shed.

I caught her like this.

Half naked, flipped around, and oh so cool looking.

You can see her belly scales on her spine!

I had to take pics.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the best angle (the tub is rather high, and I am rather short), but I got this shot to show the contrast.

I thought that was the coolest thing...

So there you go, another random snake shot of shed from Heather to you. Hope you liked it!



And now on to the Fuzz World Cup, 2010.

Kona is all fine and better now, and Joel decided to set up a semblance of the Fifa World Cup at the house, thusly dubbed Fuzz, as it involved the Fuzz kids.

Here they are, getting ready for the show.

Regal is getting a little excited now, the ball is coming out!

And they are OFF!

Fuzz Soccer Ball with Squeeky for the Fuzz World Cup.

Kona does a drop kick on Regal, Regal goes for the jugular.  What a rough match!

But in the end, the baby gets the toy..

And Regal gets the petting and love, while Kona attempts to destroy the ball. Again.

And so ends the Fuzz World Cup round one...

Will there be a rematch? Maybe...

But until then, have a fantastic day, my friends!

Crazy days

Well, we have been having some crazy days over here.

Kona ran out of the house into the street Monday night and got hit by a car.

She's alright, but has a few bangs and scrapes.

I was absolutely freaked out, because Joel and I saw it happen while we were trying to get her back into the house.

The lady who hit her was going slow, as she saw Kona running across the street, but Kona doubled back and got bumped.

Crazy dog.

Seriously.

But as of today, she is fine. The X-rays came out fine (we rushed her to the ER that night), and other than pain medication and some tender loving care on Tuesday (I stayed home to watch her progress), she is fine.

She's even bugging Regal just as much as ever.

Crisis seems to be averted.

PHEW.

So today's blog is about that craziness more than anything else.

While I was home tending to my little fuzz princess's every need, I finally reorganized the snake room, and we are now needing to clear out some racks and move around some animals to get things more in order.

I just needed something to take my mind off of the crazy dog adventures.

It has completely helped. Now I'm concerned about where I'm going to put all these animals that are growing up. ACK!

Until tomorrow, my friends, have a fantastic day.

FIVE HUNDRED!!!

This is my FIVE HUNDREDTH BLOG POST and I am THRILLED!

We began May 1st, 2008, and we are still going strong.

I want to take this time to thank each and every one of you readers out there, from the loyal every day at 6:00 AM reader to the occasional check-in with the blog reader. 

I try and make this as interesting and worth coming back to as I possibly can, and I appreciate your reading what I have to say. 

I never really thought I would get this far, writing every day of the week for 500 posts.

Because of Ball Pythons, I can write and post every day. 

They are fascinating, amazing creatures, and they are my muse for what I post up. 

I see an animal in my collection and I take my photo, and there is the blog for the day.

Sometimes it is less interesting than others, and with writing every day, there is occasional writers block, but I have to say, I find inspiration with my animals, and with you, my readers.

I ask you what you want to read and I try my hardest to get it to you. 

Hopefully it has been working so far. 

The randomness that I share has also been fun, and the serious topics as well. I hope that what I do here has helped you care for your animals better, and understand the world of Ball Pythons just a bit more. 

And of course, the family...

Sometimes they appreciate being involved, sometimes not. But its fun for me to relive the blog over the years with photos as well.

Most of the time, it bores them. 

Thank you all for putting up with me. 

It's been fun, and lets hear it for another 500x500 posts!!!

Have an absolutely fantastic Five HUNDRED kind of day, my friends!

Passion for Pewters and Weekend Update

This blog is for my friend Pat. He asked me about my Pewters and wanted to see some good examples of some.

Well, I can help you with that, but some of the gals were not participating as well as I would have liked.

This is my favorite Pewter I hatched out last year.

She has crazy high sides, and is just faded out with blushing. I was really glad to see her hatch out, and even gladder to see her grow up so well.

Unfortunately, this is her sister, who was in shed last night. I tried to get her to at least show off her pattern. Both these gals are Cinny Pewters, which means a Pastel and a Cinnamon combination.

And this is the other twos half sister from another clutch. She is going into blue, but had some of the color (albeit dulled out) to show for it. She is also a Cinnamon Pewter.

And this big gal is my adult pewter. Apparently, I only have Cinnamon Pewters, although I'm working on changing that this year. This female was paired up with my Sterling in the hopes of Super Pewters. Shes building slowly, so hopefully I'll see an Ovulation really soon.

So there you go, my friend Pat. I hope that helps you in your quest for awesome Pewters. I think mine are pretty nice.

What do you think?

Anyway, on to the weekend updates. I PLUGGED IN THE INCUBATOR. It's empty, as you can well see, but its on and running and hopefully will have something in it in a week or two.

Had some company over and had a great time, and also had a few adventures of non-snakey nature.

Kona got spayed this weekend, and here she is looking doleful yet comfortable in her cone of shame.

Joel was upset that I took a picture of her when she was suffering, but how cute is she, right? And she was hopped up on pain meds anyway. She probably doesn't even remember my taking this picture.

Poor dawg. But she's much better and much more active now.

And then, on Sunday, we had a visitor of another kind.

Apparently this little guy was looking for food. He found some, and happily munched away at some dog food while Regal and Kona were stuck inside, watching it.

It is really cute... Joel wouldn't let me keep it.

Oh well.

Anyway, that is all for now, this has been a long blog considering.

Have a fantastic week, my friends. Happy Monday!

Super, not so Super, and Helpers

I have a constant shadow in my room with me if I let it in. Kona is always in the room if the door is open. I was cleaning a tub that I can't reach, and was on my stepstool, and look down, and there was a puppy on the ground looking up! She appears out of no where...

Unfortunately she doesn't help.

If she could, that would be much more interesting, but she just stares at the rodents.

Oh well...

Anyway, in terms of random photo shoots, I decided to do some BRIGHT animals to start out with.

This is my Firefly, the Fire Pastel. He is absolutely stunning, and I really really really like him. He was one of those once I saw him, I had to have him animals.



And this is my Super Pastel. She is a stunner as well, but a complete brat and loves to be angry all the time.



Here they are together to show you the difference in shade of neon yellow... The Firefly is still brighter, but the Super Pastel is still bright (and angry).



I really like how these photos show the difference in coloration between the two morphs. Both have Pastel, but both are different in nature. Once the Firefly is ready, I want to have a Superfly (Super Pastel Fire) to compare to as well. I'm sure it will burn my eyes in terms of brightness, and I can't wait to see it!



And what about Pastels compared to the Firefly?

No contest.

Pastels are still amazing in their own right, but... here is the obvious proof that there are some excellent brighteners in terms of base morphs to make things pop!

Remember, just add a Fire to the Pastel, and you can get something THAT much brighter! WOW!



Now if only these amazingly bright animals and others could help clean up...

Wishful thinking, I know.

Oh well.

Have a great day, my friends!

RANT: Puppies and phones don't mix

So...

Last night I went out to check on the yard and feed the dogs. Apparently, my phone fell on the ground, and I didn't notice.

A few hours later, I notice my phone is gone... and I check everywhere to find it.

I finally find it with the help of a few friends and Joel outside in the yard, covered in mud and scratches...

We clean it off, and lo and behold, there are chew marks and scrapes from the puppy.

How classy is my phone now?? SO TOTALLY EXTRA CLASSY NOW!



Boo.

I'm a little bummed, but such is the life of a puppy owner, yes?

And yes, I still love Kona. I'm just a bit miffed.



Anyway, I have been giving the males a longer break than normal due to my hectic schedule this week, on top of the fact that I have not been seeing much action in terms of prized pairings. So... Time for a break for everyone, a few nice juicy rats, and then we are back in business.

I am trying to figure out the last few pairings that I have been putting off, as well as a few females that I have been on the fence about putting into the rotations this season.

1100 gram females around this time of year are the bane of my existance.

1200, and we are good. 1100??? They are just taunting me.

And of course they are off feed, or else they would already be 1200 grams...

Sigh.

Maybe I should just push the limit to 1500 grams and be over it. That way these females can't keep pissing me off.

Yeah.

Maybe I'll do that.

Maybe.



Anyway, yes, that was a random photo of the Sulfur Mojave. I'm stoked to have her, and have been wracking my brain to figure out what to put her with when the time comes, but of course, with the age she has, I have a year or so to decide anyway.

That's another thing...

Plans in the future. I try not to have any anymore, because they NEVER seem to work. I just grow them up, and figure out the pairings with the males and females that I have at the time. It seems to be better for my sanity that way.

It's good to be sane.

Have a fantastic day, my friends.