It was already a long day when Air Canada flight 8338 arrived from Calgary. I watched the plane land and then paced around the cargo office waiting for my new Brazilian Rainbow Boa to arrive, a 3 month old female who had begun her journey on Vancouver Island yesterday and spent 6 hours gallivanting across western Canada before landing in Winnipeg at 9:45 p.m.
The man in the cargo office turned out to be a lizard person so he understood my anxiousness to open the box and check on the condition of my new charge. Inside the box, lined with styrofoam and packed with newspapers was a clear round plastic container the size of 3 butter tarts and inside was one very worn and lifeless looking little snake, her head buried in her coils. The one eye that I could see looked far away and disinterested.
I popped up the corner of the lid and blew in a breath of fresh air. No response. I gently blew in a deep breath of warm moist air and the little head appeared out of the coils, the tongue flicked, and the eyes and head followed my face as I turned the container one way and then the other. She was alert and interested as if asking “Do I know you?” I was relived to see her perk up, so was the lizard man, then it was back into her box for the hour trip home.
At home I rinsed her Rubbermaid box with warm water, put in a dish of fresh water and got it ready for her. She sat in her travel container watching the proceedings with interest but when I took the lid off her container and offered my hand to crawl out on, she watched but hung on to the bit of damp paper in the bottom for all she was worth - she didn’t want to come out to get her picture taken so I took one with her in the container
... then lifted out paper, snake, and all and placed her in her regular home for the night. One more picture
....and then I put her box in the vivarium where it is warm, damp, and dark. Both of us will sleep well tonight now that the long day is done!
Now it is time for ME to go to bed!
Thanks Tony for a really BEAUTIFUL little Boa and thanks Don for the great packing job and handling the shipping!
More pictures will follow when she has settled in.
P.S. Sorry for the size of the pictures! It has been a 20 hour day and the old brain is fried!
Hybrid Mode
