To Selena, With Love by Chris Perez

Author:Chris Perez [Perez, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, Arts & Literature, Composers & Musicians, Entertainers, Ethnic & National, Memoirs, Humor & Entertainment
ISBN: 0451414047
Amazon: B0073XV7K4
Publisher: Celebra
Published: 2012-03-05T14:00:00+00:00

It was Selena’s idea to get a dog, but it was my idea to own a pet snake. I had always wanted one, I told Selena one day.

“You want a what?” she asked, incredulous. “But why? You can’t call a snake to come over and sit next to you, and it’ll never lick your cheek or play with you.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just think snakes are really cool.”

Selena was always a good sport. As I started bringing books home about pet snakes, learning which ones were better than others and how to maintain them, she read the books right along with me and learned as well. Finally, we settled on a ball python, because they were docile snakes that would typically roll themselves into a ball if they were threatened instead of trying to bite. Another plus was that they didn’t grow any bigger than five feet long.

We found a pet store that specialized in exotic pets. They stocked all different kinds of snakes and lizards. I could tell by the way her eyes skittered around to every corner of the store that Selena was trying to pull off acting brave, but feeling jumpy inside.

“It’s okay,” I reminded her. “They’re all in cages and aquariums.”

When one of the clerks approached us, I told him that we were thinking about getting a snake. He and I started discussing pythons. To my amazement, Selena just stood next to me without saying a word—a rare occasion.

I had already acquired a forty-gallon aquarium tank, a heat lamp, heat rocks, and everything else that we needed. When I told the clerk this, he went into the back room and returned with a ball python wrapped around his arm. As soon as Selena saw that, she was gone. She didn’t just walk fast. She ran out the door, then turned around and stared at me from outside the store, big-eyed.

I started cracking up. “It’s okay,” I said, and then she started laughing, too. “Come on,” I encouraged her.

She came back into the store slowly, keeping her eye on that python, which by now had wrapped itself around my arm. The clerk told me all about the snake and its feeding habits—it ate live mice—while Selena stepped a little closer.

Once she looked calmer, I said, “Come on. Check him out.” I held the snake toward her on my arm.

Selena put her arm out. The python went right over to it and wrapped itself around her arm. She tensed for a minute, then relaxed again.

We brought the snake home in a little sack, kind of like a pillowcase, and put it in our aquarium. Selena was nervous around the snake for a while, but after about a month had passed, she relaxed.

Ball pythons are binge feeders; they’ll eat, then go for long periods of time without being hungry again. A couple of weeks after buying the python, I decided that it had probably had enough time to adjust to its new environment. It was time to buy a mouse and try feeding it.

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