Bye-Bye, Bao . . .

. . . and Kronos, too.

Just a little over an hour ago, Ariana's friend Chris left with both of Ariana's snakes.

A lot of factors were involved in Ariana's decision to re-home her much beloved serpents, the major one being, notwithstanding, her sensitivity to Neil's deep dislike of reptiles, particularly of the snaky persuasion.

Another consideration was the health of the snakes. Lubbock is a dry climate, and the snakes are tropical creatures. They would have not fared well in a cry climate without major intervention. Bao had already proven to to be very susceptible to pneumonia during the dry heating months of winter.

Still, another concern was the logistics of safely and comfortably getting the snakes down to Lubbock. It would have been challenging to take them down by RV because that would have involved them being in pillow sacks in a climate-controlled (for human comfort) vehicle for at least 3 - 4 days.

The snake guys at Cold Blooded Pets were willing to ship the snakes to us over-night, and for less than $100. But that would have involved having to board the snakes at the shop for about a week, and boarding space was not always available.

And then there was the issue of my having to take care of the snakes in Ariana's absence. That wouldn't have been much of a big deal, but it would have been something that I would have had to remind myself to do on a regular basis, especially since the snakes were out of sight and out of mind in Ariana's room.

Plus Bao was such a picky eater, often refusing to eat her rats, that I would have had to catch the rat and relocate it to the outside, preferable away from the house and the neighbor's wood shop.

Anyhow, Ariana felt very comfortable with having re-homed the snakes with Chris, who was licensed to do reptile rescue when he lived in Pennsylvania.

And Chris was very happy to have gotten 2 very beautiful snakes, one of which was a rare patterned boa.

I'm very glad that this re-homing of reptiles went off as easily and smoothly as it did.

If only it were as easy to re-home the rest of the critters so that it would be easier for Neil and Ariana to find us a home in Lubbock.

But I try not to think about that ~ at least not until I will be forced to have to ~ because doing so very easily puts me into a deep heart-breaking depression.

So the best I can do is to hope for a positive outcome where all living creatures ~ both 2-legged and 4-legged ~ will fare extremely well no matter how the circumstances may play out.