Exactly, MsMagnolia. My mother, for instance, refuse to believe there is a difference between snakes - even my little western hognose. She just thinks all of them are venomous constrictors (I know, right) that will strike, coil, and kill people the first chance it gets. So when these stories come out, first thing I get in the email is one of my family forwarding the story to me trying to say, "See, I told you so"... I keep on saying we don't have a burmese python, etc. But, it doesn't seem to sink in. Well, the TV news story that broke in Orlando about this incident showed a ball python pictured in the background that looked almost like our pet! So, it's no surprise that my family can't see the distinction either. By the way, my Avatar is one of our ball pythons...
I have to say, my 2 kids have gone a long way in giving my friends and family a healthy appreciation for snakes. And they started with me! I was snakophobic a few years ago - just like my mother. I see a snake, first thing I do is get a shovel and whack its head off! Now, we have several "resident" snakes in our backyard. Our yard backs up to a lake, so we sometimes find Southern Banded Water Snakes sunbathing by the lake. We also have a family of Racers passing by a lot of times. Before having pet snakes, I would have had gone for the beebee gun when one of them shows up. Now, I just shoo them off to the lake to live a happy life.
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