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Kelfezond
The bearded one
United Kingdom
4803 Posts |
 Posted - 17/08/2013 : 02:13:29
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Hey guys, Kelfezond here with a story for you!
I’ve always tried my hardest to be 100% honest with everything I show you guys. That’s why when I mess up in a video or something doesn’t go to plan we keep rolling and work it out, we try not to cut out mistakes so you guys can learn from us. But not just to educate it’s also because I like to remind people that we’re all only human, you get a lot of negativity in the reptile forums these days whenever somebody makes a mistake and what should be threads filled with support is instead mockery and judgement. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t post this story as it happened.
I toyed with the idea of posting this or not for a long time because it’s something that truly did upset me and make me feel ashamed of myself. But I’ve always given you guys the truth and what happened with Kelfezond Reptiles has always been public knowledge. I’m not going to change that now, so I’d like you all to cast your mind back to August the 11th for this story: Kempton Park Reptile Expo.
I really enjoyed Kempton, I thought it was a brilliant show and I picked up a fair few bits and pieces myself: 5 plastic hides for the little royals we hatched, my girlfriend Adie picked up some faun’s for her mantids, I picked up a Northern Gold tarantula and a chocolate Californian king snake.
At the end of the show it’s becoming tradition for me to visit the local pub with a fellow reptile enthusiast friend who lives in London, we stayed there the rest of the night and had a good time safe in the knowledge all our stuff would be okay in the car for a little while longer. At about 10:30 that night I left the pub and admittedly I was a little on the drunk side, my wonderful girlfriend unfortunately the designated driver now had to ferry me home.
About 20 minutes into the drive I picked up the little cali king from her box. I don’t know if I was bored from the drive, excited that I had a new snake or genuinely curious about how the snake was doing but anyone who owns a small cali king will know how fast they can move when they want to – add to that the poor hand eye coordination of a drunk and it wasn’t difficult to guess what would happen: before I know it she’d wriggled from my grasp and hit the floor of the car.
I panicked! The snake show down around the handbrake, I couldn’t be sure if it landed on the floor driver’s side, passengers side or god-forbid landed in the middle and dropped down the hole by the handbrake. I reached down and in the darkness just patted the floor around my chair trying to find it, then I did the same to the driver’s side while my girlfriend found a place well lit to pull over and help me search – we looked for about 10 minutes with our phone torches but no luck. I was devastated! I’d read threads about this very thing happening before and I knew the outcome for a 7inch long tiny jet black snake wasn’t good, it could get down any hole be anywhere, and the thing moved like lightning it could have gone from one end to the other of the car by now. As dramatic as it sounds I wanted to just sit on the curb and cry – my girlfriend persuade me to carry on home and search in the morning when the sun came up, we had no choice so away we went.
Before I slept I prepared a bottle trap – the papers the king came with said it was feeding on pinkie mice and I had plenty in the freezer so I baited the trap with one and put it in the car. The next morning I shot out to the car, attempting to ignore the splitting hangover. Again I was distraught to see the pinkie untouched, the trap empty. I threw the trap and we got in the car again with torches, another 20 minute search to find nothing – I did however discover that there are two large flat plastic vents under the front car seats that perfectly resemble hides. I had a feeling if it would be anywhere it would be there! We got on the phone to our mechanic and within the hour he was taking the seats out the car, the plastic panels were all removed, the carpet lifted and the vents I was so sure the king would be inside were removed, checked and empty. I stood there and looked into our vehicle, which was now literally a metal shell and couldn’t think where it was. I began to lose hope of ever finding it and I really started to hate myself, I had messed up big time and the poor snake was paying for it. I know I’m not a professional when it comes to reptiles but I always thought of myself as very capable these days, I’ve helped plenty of people and I often get emails through asking for my advice – didn’t exactly feel “qualified” answering those emails when I can’t even keep a hold of my own snake. Anyway “emo-self-loathing” stuff aside we had to get our chairs put back in side we needed the car but we left the rest out, that way we could bait up some more of the car and the snake would have easier access to it all! We drove away, got home and placed another two bottles one in each side of the car: drivers and passenger.
That night my girlfriend dropped me at work for a quick lock up, it takes me about 20 minutes so she waits in the car : I got an excited text come through, then another. “The snakes definitely still in the car!!!” “I can hear it in the dash!” My heart leapt an I ran straight out to the car to listen, couldn’t hear a thing but it was a little more hope than we had before. So the next morning back to our lovely mechanic and the dashboard came out – we used a camera on a long bendy wire to search all through the gaps, channels and ledges – NOTHING! It was here that I was almost sure the snake was either dead or gone. We left the car parts out the car and drove home in a metal shell again with no interior. This time we baited up the pair of traps one on the dash board and one on the floor.
On the 15th, four days after the snake was dropped, the mice were starting to really smell. The car was disgusting to be inside and we still had to use it multiple times a day. We were due back to the mechanic Monday to have the car fitted again, if the snake was inside the car it would now have a carpet placed over it and probably be trapped. It didn’t really matter as I was losing hope that it was even in the car or alive anyway, more depression, more shame – It was getting hard to avoid talking about my Kempton purchases to my friends but I just didn’t want to deal with it, I wanted to find the snake and pretend it never happened. I went to work smelling of rotting mouse again but my thought was that if the snake was going to smell the food it’d need to overpower the old Iron Bru smell from the bottles I use (and for the record Iron Bru is the worst thing to use, you just can’t wash that smell out!). I went to work and came back, finally got sick of that damn smell and threw the stupid traps away... Or at least I was about to when I notice one of the mice were missing! I was sure it was there before I went to work, so the snake must have been around in the last hour or so. It was evidence that the snake was still there! Screw the Monday deadline the interior wasn’t going back until I had my snake! Renewed with a new sense of purpose I set up the traps again, got a water bowl on the car floor an placed a few select hides around, I thought it might choose a plastic hide next to the food source.
That was last night, this morning I rushed out to check the traps and hides, praying I’d find the snake. But again as I was growing used to – nothing was there. Today was a busy day we had to deliver a lot of stuff to friends and family so I packed up the car and decided to just keep checking the floor and dash throughout the day.
You’re probably wondering if this story ends with a happy ending? Well at about 2pm Friday the 16th on our way to deliver some aspen to a friend we pulled up a traffic light, it was starting to rain outside and the windows were misting up. We’d not put the air con on since the snake went missing as we were afraid it might be in the system somewhere and get too cold. “It fed on the floor last time so it’s probably still there, doubt it can climb this high just put the air con on” I said. So we did. Windows cleared and my partner pulled away on the green light, until ... “Steve, something just fell on my foot!” she was wearing those stupid shoes women wear that barely cover their feet. I looked down at the car floor hoping to find the snake, watched for about 10 seconds and then I saw it! The sunlight caught it’s black scales as it shot past her feet heading to the back seats, I reached down and grabbed! Just caught it’s tail!
I WAS SO HAPPY!
I looked it over, it looked perfect! Not a scratch, not a bump. Just those perfect black scales and she moved as fast as she did five days ago at the show. We pulled over at the next stop which happened to be a pub, I got some funny looks running in with a snake in my hand but I wasn’t about to let it escape again I needed a box! They provided one, and the rest as they say is history.
So that’s the story of our little Chocolate Cali’ King. How she almost never made it home and how she taught me a lesson about handling snakes in the car.
I’m glad I’ve uploaded this because I always wanted to be honest, I’m not looking for acceptance for what I did, I still blame myself and if you feel like you need to as well then you crack on.
But hopefully if nothing else this story can give somebody in the same situation hope, we lost a 7 inch jet black snake the width of a pencil and manage to find it again.
Thanks for reading. I’m sorry this was so long.
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\v/ Click me for Kelfezond Reptiles Facebook Page! \v/
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chrisc
Old Royal - I Post too much!
United Kingdom
3326 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 06:44:03
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a daft mistake but a valuable lesson learned, will have to call her houdini now.
one thing i love about this forum is we can share thing's like this without getting flamed by the like's of RFUK's keyboard warrior's who of course have never made a mistake with their reptile's
remember reading a thread on some forum of a snake escaping in a car that also ended up behind the dashboard an was found a week later in the bloke's work boot as he went to put his foot in it |
1.0.0 burmese python,giblet. 1.0.0 BCI, william. 0.1.0 blue tongue skink, 0.1.0 green iguana, jasmin, 1.0.0 cape house snake, 0.1.0 checkered garter snake
my youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/pegrocks
incubate 2 campaign
https://www.facebook.com/incubate2 |
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jimmer7
Sub Adult
United Kingdom
661 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 10:10:40
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| Glad you found it , but drunken fondling is never good. |
Winston Pinstripe
Pepsi Lesser Yb
Ronnie Sulfur Mojave
Sponge bob Firefly
Dr marshmallow brazilan black terranchala
Skellator costa Rican zebra T
Plus4 hissing cockroaches.
Reggie CA dwarf boa het blood
Willow Hognose |
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richard v
Sub Adult
United Kingdom
563 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 10:18:38
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| well done on finding her! all I can say is glad it was that than the t you brought cant imagine you would enjoy hunting for that as much :) |
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rockroyal
Yearling
United Kingdom
470 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 14:38:54
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| Well done for being honest i think this should be a lesson to us all really not to become complacent no matter how much experience we have when dealing with snakes. Kelf have you chose a name yet??? |
3.1.0 royal python
2.0.0 corn snake
0.1.0 western hognose
0.1.0 bci
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rustyp1974
Sub Adult
France
554 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 16:26:16
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| What a story! I would have been pulling my hair out with worry & giving myself a good b******** over it at the same time. So glad you found it in the end. A valuable lesson for all of us. |
1.0.0 Classic Royal Python - Apsalar
0.1.0 Fire Pinstripe Royal Python - Ember
1.1.0 Het Clown Royals (Male Pastel)
1.0.0 Bearded Dragon GG X Sandfire - Bert
1.1.O Sunset Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 Veiled/Yemen Chameleon - Ernie.RIP.
0.0.1 Pandinus Cavimanus Africanus
1.1.0 White Headed Dwarf Geckos
1.0.0 Morelia SP Jungle Jaguar
1.0.0 BCI Nicaraguan Salmon
1.0.0 Reticulated Python.Tiger/50% Jampea
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boomslang
Old Royal - I Post too much!
United Kingdom
2025 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 20:40:31
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| Glad everything worked out :) |
1.0.0 pinstripe Royal Python
1.0.0 Bumblebee Royal Python
1.0.0 Normal corn
1.0.0 Extreme red Hognose
0.1.0 Extreme red tiger Hognose
1.1.0 yemen chameleons
1.0.0 Piebald yemen
1.0.0 Tamatave panther
1.0.0 Quadricornis
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Foremand
Sub Adult
United Kingdom
968 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 21:07:32
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This story isn't one to be afraid to tell people of. If you hadn't of cared you wouldn't of ripped your poor car apart looking day in day out. Most people would of given hope up that night.
It's defiantly a lesson to learn but also a learning curve with these types of snakes. As to some newbies all snakes are the same just different size and colour but the fact that these little Cali are quick and very hard to discover once lost is some great advice that only mistakes can teach you .
People on this site won't judge you. People here won't think no different. Your admitting what happened. Most people only say the good bits but on this site regardless of how bad it Is shared among us all. This site has so must to offer from bad advice to bad mistake or great advice and great way people have learnt about these reptiles.
Don't put ya self down kelkezond. Like you say. We're all human. You just caught out at a bad time lol
Your a very talented guy and truthfully I try and follow a lot of what you do as I'm eager to learn more for the future. You made a mistake. Who hasn't. |
1.0.0 Royal python- Kaa
1.0.0 German shepherd- Riley
0.3.0 Cats- Does not matter they won't come to you
1.0.0 Red Footed Tortoise- Nemo
1.0.0 Boa- Bison
0.0.1 Brocky- Bearded dragon |
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Lotabob
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
5008 Posts |
Posted - 17/08/2013 : 21:19:34
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quote:
Originally posted by jimmer7
drunken fondling is never good.
He's a man, he'll never learn HAAH.
Glad you got it back. |
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What happened to me after Kempton
