Iris

My favorite little snake died two days ago. I am grieving for her sweet little loving presence. She was a very special girl. Her name was Iris. In Greek Mythology Iris is the Goddess of the Rainbow: the one with the winged boots, and the messenger of the Gods and Goddesses of Mount Olympus. Iris shared her role as messenger of the gods with the Olympian Hermes. In real life Iris was a remarkable girl. She seemed to have lost her fear of people more completely than any other snake I have ever known. When she first came to me, she would hiss out of fear everytime I opened the cage. But before long she was happy to come out and play with me a while. She had a funny habit of hanging out in the front of her cage watching me. She would spend the whole day and night there sometimes. For those of you who don't know snakes, this is quite remarkable, because snakes generally spend most of their time hiding. She had some of the cutest double saddles near her neck, and because she was of Guyanese descent, they had a nice perfect peak on just the outsides of the double saddles. She had the cutest pink on her face.

She was so tiny too. I always figured she was a runt. There was her size and the fact that sometimes, after constricting her mouse, she would sometimes lose it—led me to believe she was more of a runt than just a bit small. Most baby boas have a very strong feeding response, but not her. She would also sit in my hand without moving, in large lazy loops, instead of moving all over the place like most snakes, trying to escape. I always figured that was part of her being so unafraid, but maybe it was a sign. Four days before she looked fine, but maybe she had some kind of restricted bowel all along. Three days before I didn't handle her. I got two big healthy beautiful Surinamese girls, Artemis and Aphrodite, so I was very busy that day and I missed handling Iris. The day before she died she was swollen, but I don't believe she was in pain. She looked constipated, and I soaked her like any good snake mom would twice that day, fully expecting to see her feeling better again in a few days time. But, unexpectedly, the next morning she was gone. I so enjoyed her time here with me. She was a very silly beautiful precious little snake spirit, and I loved her very much.