Careful Where You Cut

Putting this off does not change the reality. Sister III, our third snake, is dead. She did not die by neglect like the first who escaped and showed up the last day of school only to die over the summer due to overheating. She did not die by bacterial infection like the second one who never had a chance since she never ate while with us for less than two months and had to be taken to the vet. Sister III died under my supervision while we were searching for her.

Just when I thought we were going to be successful in our care of a snake things turned. Sister III loved to hide from the beginning. She did the same thing at Petsmart and kept her same behavior with us. She escaped once and we found her as documented in a previous blog. Then she went a week without eating. Then she found a way to get into her plastic tree and hide. I did the flour routine again and she came out one night, left a trail and there was flour around the hole where she went back in. Almost a week went by and she did not come back out – not even when I put a mouse by the hole and left it out overnight. I was afraid she had died or was sick inside the tree.

I had the bright idea to enlist two of my students who were in my class for Falcon Break – 45 minutes of remediation torture – while the rest of the students have break in the gym. We probed the tree with a wire and did not stir the snake. We decided to cut off some of the branches. Just as one of the branches fell Bobby said there she is. He spotted her in the hole. I crafted a hook with the wire and excitedly drew her out. The excitement ended when I saw her on the table with no head. Yes in our enthusiasm we had cut off her head. My good idea went bad. Be careful where you cut.

The only thing to do was make it a learning experience and teach the students how to mix a 9 to 1 water to formaldehyde solution and preserve her for observation and learning. The students later had all sorts of questions and we made the most of a bad situation.
Not my finest hour as a teacher. We will not have any more snakes for some time.

The cycle of life and death is quite a phenomenon and even tougher when it is accelerated by our hands. Fortunately cutting is not always lethal. I had an amaryllis bulb at the front display table that bloomed before Christmas. Over the break the blooms died. The kids were all concerned and asked why it died. I told them it was a part of the natural process. Flowers bloom, die, drop their seeds and the cycle continues. I cut the old stalks and now a new stalk is growing and will bloom. It will be a fitting memorial for Sister III.

TIde turning

Can you find the tracks?

I went to school today - Sunday afternoon - to feed the animals and water the plants. I had been there yesterday also. There was something more than routine feeding and watering going on. On Thursday one of my students did not put the top on the snake cage tightly enough and later that day, she was gone. Several students were concerned and looking the next day. Snake three gone. I made my peace with it and told the administrators and other staff that as long as you have students handling animals things like this will happen. Either you cannot have any and have a sterile, no hands on place or you can have them and deal with the occasional consequences.

It all sounded good but I am tired of dealing with so many consequences. Like I told my students I have to come to school most everyday even on the weekends to keep the plants and animals happy. Most of the time it keeps me happy too but when my stuff gets stolen and animals disappear and plants die due to stealth in the former case and mismanagement in the later I grow weary.

When the first snake went awol, I had read about putting flour around the room to see if there was a trail the next day. We never did that and were shocked, rather my colleaugue who hates snakes, was shocked when she showed up in some plant research cabinets (that have never been fixed by the district). This time I decided to try the flour. A student was thoughtful enough to get the flour from the cafeteria during class and then come by afterschool on a Friday afternoon to remind me to spread it.

When I came to school yesterday no tracks and no Sister III at the heating pad I sat out on the floor. Today the tide turned. I noticed two sets of tracks. I was not overly surprised when I saw Sister III under the cage piece of carpet and on the heating pad since she had left a trail. I was delighted. I know how excited the kids will be tomorrow and will not have to deal with yet another disappointment.

I could not get too excited too long. Just after I fed Benita (who snarfed down 14 super mealworms) and I had just put her back in the terrarium, I heard the classroom door from the greenhouse side open. When I turned I saw an officer who had pulled a gun on me. That was a first.

Thankfully, he holstered it quickly when he saw I was not a threat. He asked about the flour and (ID of course). I showed him the tracks in the flour, all the animals and the plants. He said he wished he had a class like this in high school. He also shared about his two pet guinea pigs and left. I am glad somebody is looking out for us.

Finally I got locks on the greenhouse Friday after trying since first getting there in August 08. Greasy, the locksmith, told me he had found a black widow spider in the lock with two prisoners. I wondered what happened to the 214 black widow spider babies from our pet last year that we rescued from the bottom of the school fountain. Greasy also told me about two burmese pythons he kept for six months for a cousin. When he returned them, she called a few days later in great distress. The female had given life birth to 178 babies! Maybe I need to get two snakes and they will be as prolific as the black widow spider or Greasy's python.


Greasy poses after fixing locks and sharing a love for animals.

Maybe the tide will keep turning as I complete the Tapestry grant for $10,000 for my Mississippi Investigates Caterpillars (MIC) project.