I will let you know in advance that this post does not have a happy ending. I have been AWOL from the reptile forums that I visit for some time. I just haven’t had it in me to visit them lately. Hell, I have even thought of getting rid of most of my snakes. Lately, with the amount of stress that I have had to deal with, I have found it slightly relaxing to browse the forums, read posts and look at some of the pictures that are posted.
I stopped by a popular Red-Tail Boa forum this evening and one of the first posts I came across was from a friend of mine named Rick. I met Rick online about a year and a half to two years ago, when I purchased Razz (pictured below) from him.
She is a beautiful snake with a great disposition. Her mother was an F3 Albino named Aurora owned by Rick. Aurora ran into a bit of trouble within the last couple years. I believe she formed a cyst or something on her side and had to go through a couple surgeries before getting back to her normal self
You can see her scar in the picture above. Rick went through a very long recovery period with her. That scar was pretty much an open wound for the longest time, but he mended her back to health.
(This is the most recent photo of her with her last batch of babies)
Well, long story short.. apparently Rick was on his way to the vets with her in a duffel bag. He had run into a store to grab some coffee and when he came out she was gone. Somebody had reached in the open window and stolen the duffel bag. He spent several days papering the town with reward posters and scanning a ton of online ads hoping she would show up.
(more after the jump)
He received a call saying a bunch of kids found her chopped up behind a maintenance facility. He went out looking for her, but didn’t find her. He went back the next day, and sadly found her body.
It blows my mind and sickens me to think that people are capable of this. Yes, I realize people do much worse things to humans, but that would be the next step up from here right?
The original forum post can be found here.
Rick’s website can be found here.
