Another Rant

This journal is about photography. It's not about my political viewpoint, my societal viewpoint, world views or anything of that nature. I'm a photographer. I'm not a politician, or an actor, or an economist, or anyone that affects the way the world works. The way I see it, you come here for my pictures, not for my rants, and certainly not for my jokes (nudge nudge wink wink know say no more!)

So I keep these things down to a dull roar, only ranting about things photography related (or the rare soup one.)

Unfortunately I feel the need to rant once more. So to my dear readers, if you don't want to read a long-winded tirade, feel free to go back to looking at my pictures. I certainly won't mind, as I don't care to read rants either. For those that are still with me, here it goes:

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I worked at pet stores, working with reptiles and salt water systems. Back then, the only reptiles you could get, for acceptable amounts of money, were wild caught. Having been wild caught, they came with parasites and varying health, typically poor. They were stressed, starved, dehydrated and generally pissed off. Feeding was an issue because white mice, the most common food item available at a pet store, is not something found in the wild, so a vast majority of snakes simply refused to recognize them as food. 

I got to be very good at my job, rehabilitating, rescuing, reviving and feeding, these sad cases. I am ever so thankful that those dark days are behind us, and the reptiles available these days are captive bred and lack all those issues I dealt with decades ago.

Which is not to say they've been completely eradicated.

Enter "Lucky"

Lucky is an 11 year old Royal (nee Ball) Python. Lucky is half-starved, dehydrated, freaked out and very ill.

He was given to me by a guy who could no longer care for the snake.

The tank was too small, there were no hiding places, no water, no heat and it had never been cleaned. That the snake is still alive is a testimony to the resilience of Royal Pythons.

I am not certain he will live. I bleached the tank, put fresh paper down, got Pedialyte for him to drink, a hide box, full spectrum/heat light and some food. Lucky was too weak to constrict his prey, so fortunately the prey item didn't put up a struggle. Royal Pythons are supposed to be stocky bodied and round. Lucky is triangle-shaped. I can count his ribs and see his backbone.

This kind of neglect pisses me the hell off. The information out there on reptile care is legion. Royal Pythons are generally a forgiving bunch to begin with. Cases like this should have been consigned to the dust bin of history, and yet it's clearly still present in the reptile community.

Lucky is currently hiding, as Royal Pythons are wont to do, so no pictures of him, but when he de-stresses enough to come out, I will post a picture of him. 

Owning an animal as a pet is a responsibility. Their entire health and well being are in our hands. If we are unable, or unwilling to shoulder that responsibility, then we should not have a pet. Anyway, this concludes the rant, and I hope only to post positive comments on Lucky's health from now on.