Something is just not right

Can you tell what is wrong with this picture?

We hopped in the minivan on Saturday for the much anticipated trip to fetch the snake that Santa promised Jacob. We headed up to Pet World in Lawrence. Last year, Tim Emerson, the owner, helped Jacob and his friend Maddie do a science project on snake breeding for homeschool. The kids loved the project, and Jacob has been after a pet snake ever since.

After a brief--no, make that lengthy--side trip in Kansas City to pick up some speakers that Doug bought off ebay--we snagged cousins Haley and Megan and made our way to Lawrence. We got some excellent help at Pet World making our decision (as always), and pretty soon were back on the road with a beautiful baby girl Super Oketee corn snake tucked safely in a lidded, perforated deli cup. (Tim showed us how to tell if it's a boy or girl. Can you say "hemipenis?" Our girl didn't have one.) We stopped in Olathe at the cousin's house to catch the Chiefs game on the big screen and scare Aunt Cindy with our new pet. Aunt Cindy found that baby girl Super Oketees aren't so bad, after all. But she didn't touch her.

After such a big day, the kids all fell asleep on the way home, but Jacob woke up eagerly to set up the cage and make Baby Girl feel at home. Trouble was, Baby Girl had already gone home--to her Heavenly snake home. She was quite limp. We don't know what we did wrong, but she just didn't make it all the way to Lamar with us. Rest in peace. The kids were all quite resilient, since we hadn't even named our new pet yet. No tears. Just yawns.

I called Pet World the next day to see if they had any more Super Oketees, and the youth who answered told us authoritatively to bring in the snake and they'd take a look at it. Since we live several hours away, I told him we wouldn't be able to make it until next weekend. So he counseled me to just freeze Snakey to save her until we could drive up.

Okay. Sure. So I picked her up with a paper towels and tossed her into a ziploc and set her next to the Blue Bonnet in the freezer. I thought maybe she would be needed for an autopsy of some sort. Then washed my hands really well.

I got an email from my friend Sherrie tonight. Sherrie is Tim's wife--the owners of Pet World. She assured me that the well-meaning youth had led us astray, and there was actually no need to freeze our pet. We could just give him a prompt and proper burial according to our local customs. We laughed and laughed! She and Tim, good people that they are, are FedExing us a new, hand-picked Super Oketee within a few days.

We are obviously novice herpers, and I'm sure we did something wrong that resulted in the loss of the snake. Tim and Sherrie are really generous.

We'll post some pictures of the new guy or gal when she gets here--and survives a day or two!