A friend of mine has always been terrified of snakes ever since she was young. She was too afraid to even come into my apartment just knowing that I had snakes somewhere. She would be paralyzed at the mere thought of encountering one. Today she decided it was time for a change: she wanted to come to my apartment. After class she came over to my apartment, along with another mutual friend who's not afraid of snakes (but doesn't particularly like them either). She walked into my living room, where both my ball pythons reside, and sat at the sofa. She freaked out a bit, then took some deep breaths.
It was finally OK for me to open the cage of my big boy Kaybe (my baby bp Pika ate last night so he wasn't an option). At first I held him from a distance so she could watch how he moves. She asked me many times to make sure his face wasn't facing her, and she wanted me to touch his face to see if he'd bite me (lol) which of course Kaybe didn't mind (he's not head shy at all). Kaybe's quite difficult to provoke- he's really chill and tolerates a whole lot. It slowly became OK for me to sit in a chair in front of the sofa behind a coffee table. After another half hour she said it was OK for me to put him on the coffee table so long as Kaybe's face was facing me. Kaybe sat pretty still on the table.
Eventually she leaned over and pet the very tip of his tail. A few pokes at first and then a few strokes. She slowly got the courage to stroke a few more inches of him so long as he stayed still (which he did). She then got quite curious about feeling his muscles and his belly side. Soon enough she was petting the bottom half of his body while it was on the table with Kaybe's face facing me.
We took it up another notch and I sat next to her. Kaybe conveniently decided to put his head inside my pants pocket, so she felt better knowing his head was not near her. She progressed to putting part of his body on her lap, with most of it on my lap. We eventually got to put all of his body on her, with Kaybe's face still in my pants pocket (lol). She freaked out a few times, but got much more comfortable with time.
Kaybe eventually came out of my pocket. She took a few deep breaths and I reminded her that he's only exploring and sniffing. I had to reassure her that he was not angry with her, scared of her, or going to bite her. By the end of the night, she insisted we document this monumental step for her.
With one more deep breath...........
SUCCESS!
Look at how happy and proud she is!
She's supremely proud of herself. When I took Kaybe back and put him back in his cage she was beaming. Though she wasn't exactly looking forward to holding him again, she was still very happy with the results. As she left she peeked into Kaybe's cage and said "Thank you Kaybe!"
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