New words

I have several new words for the day. One is "boid" which I can see why it hasn't entered the common lexicon, because it's so ridiculous, but that's the proper term for the snake family that includes pythons and boas together. I just called them constrictors, but really all non-venemous snakes constrict, so that's misleading. (Even little garter snakes and cornsnakes are constrictors.) There are a great number of snake families, although most snakes you're ever going to see are colubrids. The majority of the other families have only a handful of members, but there are hundreds of colubrid species.

Another new word is ophidiphobia, which is the fear of snakes.

And although I don't think I would ever actually do it, the image of my waving my python at somebody who is deathly afraid of snakes is really quite amusing. *grins*

OO

Those are supposed to be big, sad, puppy dog eyes. Any of my friends who are in the UK... yet again I have lost an auction for a Mountain Boy pony, because I got sniped, and because I'm not really sure I want to pay $80 for a toy horse. But I want one! They were only made in the UK as far as I know, so they're very hard to find, and when they do turn up, the exchange rate is very much against me.

If any of you ever see one at a charity shop or thrift store or anywhere else, know that even if they are damaged, I still want them. Damaged hair can be fixed, espeically, and marks can often be removed. Chewed off limbs I'm probably not going to be able to do something about, but pretty much anything else...

So, you know, if you ever happen to see one...

Sunburst

Ice Crystal(This is the $80+ one, the rest run $40-50ish at the moment. Stupid exchange rate.)

Fireball

Thundercloud

Tornado

Lightening

Curiosity

Man, I'm posting a lot today!

Anyhow, I'm curious as the attitude regards snakes amongst my friends. So I'll ask! Please tick the most appropriate:

[Poll #1013273]

Feel free to expand on your answer, especially if you fall into the "dislike and/or scared stiff" categories, as I'm very interested in the reasons why people don't like snakes. Given that I'm going to own one, and I really don't understand the dislike at all, it would be useful to know how best to deal with people who might come into this apartment and not appreciate the snake in it.