Ossa

Well we evicted the crazy white Hindu guy. I am sitting here waiting for the phone to ring with people on their best behavior, calling to rent the room. Meanwhile my head is in a dozen places this morning.

The snakes? They are all doing great, I have been busy making their lives as pefect as possible, considering they live in cages. The one I worry about is Ossa. She is a uniquely lovely snake, with a soft pink background and cherry red saddles. She is wild caught, and from the Amazon basin in Guyana. I have mixed feelings about keeping a wild caught animal, in the first place, and normally I wouldn't participate in such a thing, but she is so beautiful I couldn't pass on her. She is rather unhappy since her travels to the USA, and she lets me know it at every opporttunity. The rest of my lovely boas were born in captivity, and are used to the life of a captive. Ossa tears at my heart. I can feel her deep longing for the jungle. She makes me supremely sad. Some days I want to hop a plane for Guyana, to let her go free. I am sure if I really tried I couldn't actually do that, because I am certain she was taken illegally from Guyana, although I didn't purchase her from a poacher. I would do the right thing if there was a clear way. Looks like the best I can do is to make her supremely comfortable.

What the hell ARE we doing in South America? What about the Amazon? With a twisted lump in my stomach, I think about a time where boa constrictors are extinct in the wild. I think about a time when the jungles are all but gone the way of plantations, where brown kids and black kids cut sugar cane in the hot sun, in a tropical sweat shop. All the while, white wealthy Americans wear snake skin. I actually saw items on eBay made from boa constrictor. Totally gave me the creeps.