You Know You've Got a Keeper When...

[Abraxxos]

So, as reptile keepers a lot of us have to work around and with the people in our lives about our reptiles. My mother is fine with coming over to my apartment and seeing my snakes (as long as they're not in her house). My sister, Nataku, keeps reptiles of her own and loves mine. My mother's girl friend? Well let's just say family dinners aren't held in my apartment.

Parents are one thing to deal with... It's another thing entirely when you get a significant other. I've heard a few people say things along the lines of, 'I'd love more, but my girlfriend has put her foot down at 5 herps' and variations of such.

I am proud to say I have successfully found who I think is an acceptable mate. My boyfriend, Don, and I have been in a relationship for 5 years but it's long distance as he is still in school up north. He has only came down to see me in person once and spent a week here and since I was still living in my parents house, in which he wasn't exactly the definition of 'welcome' he didn't get to see a lot of the snake he had bought me (I also only had a gecko and a milk snake at the time).

He is flying in on the 24th and staying here for another week and I thought since he bought and provided money for a lot of the animals and their related needs they are just as much his as they are mine. He'll be living with these one day and knowledge is never a bad thing so I decided that while he was down here I wanted to carry a few activities with them, including handling, cleaning, home treatments, feeding and what I think will be the most fun of all? Building decorations for the enclosures.

For a while I admit I was afraid he'd shy away but I was so happy so see him hugely excited about getting to work with the animals and learning about them and doing the group projects with me (I'll definitely post a lot of pictures, by the way). I can't wait to have him down here and I'm really happy he isn't going to make me sacrifice something I love for another thing I love.

The last thing he said in the conversation was "If it's done with you, I look forwards to doing anything with you except for jumping out of a perfectly good airplane" I tried getting him to go skydiving with me last time... No luck. So I responded with "Well what if there are snakes on the plane? 'I have had it with these mother****ing snakes on this mother****ing plane!'" and he responded "Why would anything be wrong with the plane? If I catch the snakes not only have we solved the problem, I've got new snakes to give you"
Quality answer right there.

So who do you guys deal with and your herps? Anybody that completes avoids coming over? Do you ever lie about how many herps you have to make your house not sound as scary? (IE 'Oh, I've only got like... 2 snakes and a cute little gecko' In reality you have 12 snakes 3 of which bite a lot a tarantula and that gecko you're talking about? It's a tokay of all kinds') If you have one, is your boyfriend or girlfriend okay with your animals or do they put a limit on it? Were they chill with them when they met you? Did you have to ease them into the hobby? Are they still not exactly the definition of okay with them? How many boyfriends/girlfriends/general friends have you lost upon mentioning your keeping of reptiles? Did you wait a wait for the relationship to be a little solidified before you mentioned it or did you drop the bomb on the first date? Or are you the guy who neglects human socialization in order to spend as much time as possible with your herps and doesn't worry about other humans?

Thought it'd be an interesting topic to talk about considering I figure this is something that every keeper whether it's dogs, exotic birds or herps has to deal with.