Our New Friend--Cute, Cuddly...and Slithery!

Here she is--the newest member of our family! Isn't she a beautiful little sheila? (Or perhaps it's a bloke--we haven't quite figured that one out yet.)

For now we'll assume it's a "sheila." She's a beautiful baby reticulated python, straight from jungle near the village of Long Padi. I had the word out for a while now, that my son would love to have a baby python. Well, when Pak Ronsono caught one he proudly walked half a day round trip throught the jungle to meet me in the village of Binuang with the snake. Since numerous people from several villages were looking to catch the snake for Britton, we was pretty excited to be the one that got it first. He was smiling from ear to ear.

His smile was matched only by that of Britton, who's been on cloud nine since the snake road home with me on Tuesday. Joy's reaction was quite the opposite--a high pitched scream followed by a world-record-setting dash that ended on top of the dining room table.

But things have settled down now, with the snake seeming to be at home in her aquarium, with plenty of love and care from her new friend, Britton.

On a side note, we're hoping that the info we've read on reticulated pythons is incorrect--that is to say, we're hoping that she in fact does NOT grow at the rate of 5 feet or more per year her first few years. That said, reticuled pythons currently hold the world record for the longest verified snakes in the world, though Anacondas (one of my childhood fascinations from Brazil) are the largest by overall mass.