My ball python is gone!

My ball python was getting pretty big, though it was not really more than two feet long. One day, I took a couple of books off the top of the terrarium, and when I came back the top had been pried open and the snake was gone. I figured that it was under some furniture or behind something, and that after a few days it would show up. Several weeks later, I have never seen it again. I guess it must have taken off through an open door. Since this property has lots of common area that is landscaped, a snake would not have much trouble escaping. Finding mice on the other hand, might not be as easy. Then again supposedly there are mice and rats in most urban areas.

Ball Python catching a mouse

Jake the Snake looking for a meal



Yummy! Friends 'til the end?


This is the end, friend!

Is the mouse just playing dead (or plain dead)?



The tail looks crunchy!

My ball python is about six months old, and he seems to be getting fatter but not longer. I keep feeding him (or her?) a mouse every 5-7 days, and sometimes a rat-pup. It is good to see the python has a healthy appetite, and at least it is growing (fat?).

Hurricane Wilma

Whoa, another bad Hurricane came through Miami. This one left 98% of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties without any electricity. Unlike Katrina that crushed my car (thanks to falling branches from trees), this one just took the electricity (normal for a Hurricane). The night Wilma came by I drove my car around the complex and found a nice spot away from the trees and between two vans. I wish I had done that when Katrina was coming. Of course, the two vans got hit by a row of wooden fences that got blown away. Their windshields were smashed, but my small Chevy Aveo was safely protected!

After three days without electricity, the power is back on. But more than 90% of the population is still without any electricity, and many will be without any for a month. The FEMA folks forgot to gas up their trucks, so even though they brought trucks with water (and charge billions to the taxpayers for that), the trucks were in the parking lots ungassed. After a few days they got around to distributing some water (but why? The water here is not contaminated) but they did not bring ICE or any fresh food, which is what people who don't have electricity really need. I feel sorry for those that are relying on FEMA for any help. What a bunch of incompetents; but then FEMA is being run by a guy who failed as a horse show organizer.

Turtles in the Everglades

Nearly every time that I have ever been to the Everglades, I have seen turtles basking in the sun. Sometimes they are not very big, such as these two Peninsula Cooters (I guess they could be Painted Turtles?) that are pictured above. Those turtles were about a foot long.
The softshell turtle (July 13) on the other hand was about three feet long and the largest that I have ever seen.