Sly is Missing!

     One day, after playing with Sly, I put her back in her tank, but forgot to put the cover back on. As I sat in my chair watching TV, I would check on her randomly; by now, she could climb up her tank very often. However, when I checked on her this (after watching TV for half an hour) she was gone. I thought she was hiding somewhere in the tank, so I took out all the things in the tank, but SHE WASN’T THERE.

    I freaked out. She was so small, how could I find her? I had read a lot of posts on websites about snakes escaping. How could this terrible thing happen to me? I was sad and disappointed; I had already spent 40 minutes trying to find her. Then, I saw something moving. Sly was slithering under my things on my bookcase. Finally, I found her. I almost cried.

After she escaped, I would make sure to lock her cover immediately every time I put her back in her tank. I would never let this happen again!

New Discoveries

     Sly likes to be in a daze. She likes to lean her head on the skull’s nose and stays in this position for at least 30 minutes at a time. 

    One time, I took her out of her tank, she was in a daze for a while she was in my hand and yawned. I had never known that snakes could yawn. I have seen people yawn, I have seen dogs yawn, and I have seen cats yawn, but I have never seen a snake yawn. After the first time I saw her yawning, I would see her yawn very often. She can yawn as much as 3 times in one minute. I can tell when she is about to yawn now, so I recorded her yawning. See! How cute is she?

Sly, Growing Up…Growing Up

       Sly sheds her skin once every month and a half. She becomes a little bigger every time she sheds her skin. She was approximate 30 cm when I bought her. Now, she is about 38 cm. It has been 7 months since she became my roommate. Corn snakes will reach adult size in 2-3 years. I wonder how big she will be; I’m so excited to see her grow up. 

One week before she shed her skin, her skin was getting darker and dull looking, and her eyes looked cloudy. It remained that way for 2-3 days. Then, her skin and eyes became normal again. It took 3-4 days after her eyes clear up before she shed.  Corn snakes don’t eat and aren’t active during when they are about to shed, and will hide somewhere dark. After they shed their skin, their skin becomes bright again. 

I look forward to seeing her grow up. She is still a baby, but I hope one day I could take her out shopping with me. I’m serious! She would make the coolest living accessory ever. 

Sly, My No-legged Friend

     
       Yes! I decided to have a snake as my new roommate. I like to watch TV programs about snakes on Discovery and Animal Planet, but I had never thought that one day I would have a snake as a pet.

I stood in front of the glass display cabinet, looking at baby corn snakes. They were cute and looked tiny. The worker in the pet store told me they are friendly and easy to take care of. There was a corn snake in orange and yellow color; it looked special and very beautiful. I asked the worker to take the orange corn snake out of the cabinet. I was a little nervous, as that was the first time I held a snake. Its body felt cold and it was active, and kept climbing around my fingers. It was really friendly! “Yes, I want it,” I told the worker in pet store. After signing the paperwork, the worker taught me how to take care of a corn snake and gave me a care sheet. I read the care sheet, and…WAIT, it will grow to be four to six feet long? Seriously? It looked so super tiny. Also, its average life span is up to twenty years with proper care. It means it would be my longest roommate ever. After twenty years, I would be 47 years old. How cool is that!

It is a female corn snake; my roommate (my real HUMAN roommate) and I discussed her name after I took her home. After a short discussion, we decided her name would be Sly because she was so active and cute. Sly is a perfect name for her. Hello, Sly, welcome to your new home!

Finding A New Roommate

I’ve always wanted to have a pet; having a dog has always been a dream of mine. However, my landlord doesn’t allow pets in the house. Therefore, I was thinking about finding a new roommate (pet) that didn’t bark nor made any noises (so I could hide it from her). At first, I was thinking about getting a rabbit, but I went to the pet store, and the people there told me that buying a rabbit in San Francisco is illegal; I could only adopt a rabbit. I walked around at the pet store after I asking the workers that.

Fish? Ah… No. I can’t play with fish; I can only watch them swim everyday; so boring.

A gerbil? That reminded me; I had two gerbils ten years ago, they were cute, but one gerbil killed the other one. Oh, that was such a tragedy. 

Then I thought, “how about a snake?” YES! A snake might be a good idea. Snakes don't make noises and they are small and easy to hide.