# My 65 year old pet snake



## Ruth n Jersey (May 14, 2016)

My Grandfather made this snake. It is made of heavy metal. It has been suggested that he may have made it from a sand cast.. I really have no idea how he made it.The photo is of my Great Aunt Carrie dated 1951, she lived in New York City her whole life and wanted this photo to show all her friends. She probably told them it was real. I'm almost positive it is even a bit older than 65 years. My Grandfather told me the story of how it got nicked in places and the tail damaged. I think you can see it in the photo. Soon after he made it he had it displayed in his garden. He was raking leaves one day when a neighbor stopped to talk. Seeing the snake, he grabbed the rake from my Grandfather and tried to kill it. He went into such a frenzy my Grandfather had a hard time getting the rake away from him and explain that the snake wasn't real. It now lives in my garden. Didn't mean for the skating photo to be posted.


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## Falcon (May 14, 2016)

Sure looks real.  Nice pet.


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## fureverywhere (May 14, 2016)

Great pictures, thank you for sharing. I was afraid it was going to be that you had a super old real reptile. Was your grandfather a blacksmith?


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## Ruth n Jersey (May 14, 2016)

fureverywhere said:


> Great pictures, thank you for sharing. I was afraid it was going to be that you had a super old real reptile. Was your grandfather a blacksmith?


No he wasn't a blacksmith but he was very talented in making so many wonderful things. Sometimes out of simple things that were just laying around . I have many of his items displayed around the house. His hands were never idle. He loved to carve wood also. I have birds that he made as well.


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## Guitarist (May 14, 2016)

I'm glad the skating photo got posted too.  I love them all!  Who is in the skating photo?

That is one really cool snake -- I was thinking you meant a real one too. If turtles and alligators and some other reptiles can live so long, why not snakes?


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## tnthomas (May 14, 2016)

Ruth,   I love old photos- thanks for sharing.



Guitarist said:


> I'm glad the skating photo got posted too.  I love them all!  Who is in the skating photo?
> 
> That is one really cool snake -- I was thinking you meant a real one too. If turtles and alligators and some other reptiles can live so long, why not snakes?



I have a pet California King snake that I've had, since 1993.   At the time I got hm(her?) he/she had to have been a couple or three years old.


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## Ruth n Jersey (May 14, 2016)

tnthomas said:


> Ruth,   I love old photos- thanks for sharing.
> 
> 
> 
> I have a pet California King snake that I've had, since 1993.   At the time I got hm(her?) he/she had to have been a couple or three years old.


I always wondered why people have a pet snake or reptile of some sort. I am not criticizing your choice of pets but do they show any sort of affection? Do they know you? I always wondered that. I saw a report about turtles on TV. Seems like there is a women who is involved in saving turtles. It showed her with one of them and it really did seem to know her as she held it. Very interesting.


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## fureverywhere (May 14, 2016)

I have a pet California King snake that I've had, since 1993.   At the time I got hm(her?) he/she had to have been a couple or three years old. 

I mean we all have our choices. My daughter has a rat pack that I cuddle as well. We have two dogs that will make the most serious young man cross the street, rather than walk past them. We love who we love. A bearded dragon or snake? Yeah I get it.


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## SeaBreeze (May 14, 2016)

Cool snake Ruth, I love the photo of your Aunt holding it, how fun!


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## tnthomas (May 14, 2016)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> I always wondered why people have a pet snake or reptile of some sort. I am not criticizing your choice of pets but do they show any sort of affection? Do they know you? I always wondered that. I saw a report about turtles on TV. Seems like there is a women who is involved in saving turtles. It showed her with one of them and it really did seem to know her as she held it. Very interesting.



Reptiles are "prehistoric" looking and are _generally_ 'low maintenance', at least in regards to time & attention required.   Reptiles don't show any kind of recognizable affection, that I know of.    Reptiles _kind of_ know who you are, about as much as a fish does.   They do know who feeds them...the human hand entering their cage from above.


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## fureverywhere (May 14, 2016)

Really I have noticed that from Koi to Bearded Dragon...you have the fish food or crickets. They will so follow you...


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## Capt Lightning (May 15, 2016)

I rather like snakes and I've held pythons on a couple of occasions at shows.
The Adder is the only snake found in Scotland though there have been some reports of Grass snakes.


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## ndynt (May 15, 2016)

For several years I had a huge gopher turtle living under my porch.  Fed him dried berries, gradually urging him to take them out of my hand.  He got tame enough that he would come to my door, if I did not feed him for a few days.   Last fall he just vanished.   
Enjoyed the pictures.  Love the skatiing one especially.   Why did we wear long pants under skirts?   And have to take the long pants off when we got to school?  Could not be a fashion. Women wore slacks in that era.


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