Sneaky Snake Activities

This afternoon,I settled myself comfortably in a chair around the kitchen table with a good book and with whom else but Miss Topkapi. I was fully prepared for the usual shenanigans: having her lay on the exact page I'm reading, having to save her from a near fall, having to "untangle" her from a nearby chair, etc. I don't know if I interrupted a nap or what, but she did not want to move. I did take her out a bit later than usual, because despite what you read here, I do have a life of sorts. Maybe she had decided that the ingrate who takes care of her had forgotten it was her turn to come out. The ingrate however had not forgotten.
She just lay on my lap, once in a while opening her mouth in a big yawn. Snakes do yawn and ball pythons even more than other species. Scientists are not sure why they do it so often. For some snakes, especially after they eat, it is to realign their jaws, or even to breath better, since their lungs are not as efficient as a mammals'. Ball pythons yawn a lot, and Topkapi was giving me a prime example of that today.

No matter what I did, petted her, tried to shift her weight, nothing could entice her to move. Finally, I stopped being a bitch and left her alone to sleep. I was able to get through quite a few pages, which is never the case when I am snakesitting.


Today when I took Barbossa for his walk, he did the cutest thing. Well, it's cute to me. I took him to my room, since it was still a bit chilly outside, and put him on the floor near my bed. As he usually does when he is not taken outside, he behaved like a brat and refused to move for a good quarter of an hour. I was doing other things, so I didn't mind his inactivity. Some time went by and I checked on him, and there he was trying to use the comforter as a means of climbing the bed! He had half his body off the ground, which is amazing because he is a pretty big and heavy snake, and was desperately trying to hold on to SOMETHING before he toppled over. I immediately jumped to his rescue and placed him safely on the floor. What could have possessed him to try to climb the bed?! I guess the floor was too hard for his sensitive scales. Whatever the reason, he made me laugh and he added another reason to the long list of why I love snakes: they do whatever the hell they feel like doing.