Living Gems is Back!

[Snakesitter]

Let us begin this note with an apology.

Living Gems‘ last official activity was in September 2018, a long time ago. *At the time, we had just finished our best breeding year ever, with six different litters totaling almost 100 baby Brazilians.

We disappeared shortly after that…

..because that’s when our world fell apart.

In late September 2018, I fell ill with an unknown sickness that kept me out of my day job for six long weeks. *I was bedridden for most of it, racked by pain and severely limited mobility, and eventually wound up in the hospital…where they excitedly ran all sorts of tests that yielded no answers, but large medical bills.

Thankfully, friends were able to help out with Living Gems, both snakes and rodents.

Unfortunately, during this already hard time, one of my helpers kids’ had a lice scare, and as part of our precautions I asked a friend to apply a very light application of Rid at the base of the door that separated the LGR office from the rodent room. There were closed doors separating the office from any snakes.

However, it seems the chemical was over-applied, and reached the sensitive baby snake room. *Babies begin dropping like flies, and there was nothing I could do as I was flat on my back. *I lost all but one of my long-awaited Arctic Anery babies, Litter A. *Litter C, a new striped line produced by Caesarian and Onyx, saw 10 of 17 pass. *Litter D, a repeat from Franklin and Jadeite, lost 18 of 19; and Litter E, a litter of stunning high colored from Vulcan and Pearl, lost 8 of 14.

Ironically, the later litters — which should have been more delicate — held up much better, with almost every baby pulling through.

The end total was grim, with over 50% of our babies passing away.

(The adults seemed oddly unaffected. We did lose a few animals, but the incidents were all elderly animals with known issues, breeding-related, or from difficult morph lineages.)

Fate, however, was not done with me. *At the time I had a second tiny side business of consisting of a few rental properties, and that too fell apart. One property manager who had mismanaged several properties stole several thousand dollars at termination, and a second ruined one of my buildings.

I also had a contractor walk off with several thousand dollars.

Between the lost salary, animal losses, rental losses, theft, and about ten grand in medical bills, I was forced to file personal bankruptcy. *The process took about four painful months, but in the end I exited in much better shape.

Of course, it was around then that I was told my day job was being end-of-lifed.

And then my dog got hit by a car.

So all in all, it’s been a pretty crappy eighteen months.

Thankfully, we are now at the tail end of that pain, and finally gearing up to sell some snakes.

So, what is the good news?

We still have 37 babies from 2018 ready for sale. All are well established. (The other survivors are holdbacks.)

In addition, we have three or four former holdback animals from 2016 we are considering parting with. As holdbacks, these represent some stunning animals that we just did not have space to keep. We also have three remaining hypos we will definitely sell.

Finally, we have three or four former holdbacks from 2015 we are considering parting with. These are now mature animals.

Over the next few weeks, we plan to start posting ads for the available animals, with a goal of shipping as many as possible before the summer heat shuts us down.

We can also over-summer animals here for those who prefer that route.

In addition to current animals, we have been breeding since early in the year, with ten breeding groups established. Some are repeats of past successes, and some are brand new groupings for 2020. I have seen locks, and several females have been acting gravid on and off.

As part of the re-launch process, we will be starting a new 2020 Wait List. As always, first come is first served, but there is no obligation to buy.

As always, thank you for being a loyal LGR customer.

[dave himself]

Glad to hear your on the mend mate, that was some run of bad luck you had there. Hopefully things will pick up more for you more in the coming months 👍

[craigafrechette]

My goodness, what a horrible run. I'm sorry you went through all that, but glad things appear to be on the up and up.

Sending my best wishes to you and yours.

[EL Ziggy]

Hi Cliff, it's great to see you back online. I'm glad you made it through those tough times and wish you all the best moving forward.

[Snakesitter]

We hope so, too. Dave. ;-) Thank you for reading and commenting!

[Snakesitter]

Thank you, Craig! Glad to be back!

[Snakesitter]

Thank you, Ziggy! Glad to be back!

[Jman22]

Wow, that is horrible. Hope things continue to get better for you.

[DDW]

Wow! That is a horrible chain of events. I'm glad you're recovering.

[Snakesitter]

Me too. ;-) Thank you for reading and commenting!

[Snakesitter]

Thanks DDW Glad to see there is still an active group here...so many other forums are fading away.

[Jman22]

Originally Posted by Snakesitter

Thanks DDW Glad to see there is still an active group here...so many other forums are fading away.

That is a shame. I am relatively new to discovering reptiles (better late than never) and am still in that excited stage about seeing all the beauty in them. Trying to find friends/acquaintances who have any interest in talking about it is tough!! Sometimes I feel like "Am I the only one seeing this?", lol.

[Tsubaki]

Damn that's rough! Hope life will only go better from now on.

[Snakesitter]

Forums are in trouble right now Facebook is stealing their share, which is terrible, because Facebook is hostile to breeders. That platform does not permit live animal sales, and places odd restrictions on other activities such as running a business page...so the heavy use of their site by the reptile industry is dangerous and short-sighted. Keep using forums like this one!

[Snakesitter]

Me tto. ;-) Thank you, Tsubaki!