A Slithering Saturday on Bloor West

As some of you may know, I volunteer for a wonderful organization that is called Sciensational Sssnakes!!!  Anytime they are in the GTA (at the moment) and need a hand, I try my best to be available and ready to help, after all, who wouldn't want to talk to kids and play with massive snakes all day?!

Me and Ross

This festival was for the Bloor Street West Village Fest!  Although I actually have no idea what went on in the rest of the festival, our little set up was a huge hit with the young and old!  My morning was spent with Ross, the Everglades Rat Snake.  I made sure that during this time I stayed close to the two Black Rat Snakes, this way when I talk about Ross I can directly relate him to these cousin's of his, who are native to Canada!  The later part of the day I spent with a snake named Fertenande (or as I say Fern for short) who is a Bullsnake from the west coast of Canada.  Both, are the absolute sweetest!

A friend from school, Rob, was able to also come out and help us, which was wonderful because we had so many people to talk to and entertain.

Rob teaching a boy about Steph, the Cornsnake

My favourite thing about talking to people is telling them all these really cool facts about snakes and also listening to Jenny talk about the snakes and learning even more from her.  For example, who knew that a painted turtle can breathe through it's butt!  She is such an enthusiastic personality with so much knowledge, it's no wonder she does this for a living because it suits her so well.   I really am so lucky to have met and be able to help her out!

Jenny and her Boa, Bailey.

A lot of people are incredible cautious when first approaching us, some even scream when they first see a snake in our hands!  After talking to them for a while, explaining that unless A) you were a mouse, rat, frog, or other thing they eat or B) really threatening them, that a snake wont bite you; or that its using it's tongue to smell you not to taste you because snakes rely heavily on their sense of smell to know what is around them.  So many kids, as well as adults were really curious and asked so many questions. I really love it when people ask questions and really engage!  Even a few people were able to get over their fear for the first time and touch, sometimes even hold, one of our snakes.  It's a really exciting thing to be able to be a part of.

So!  Check out the website and see where Sciensational Sssnakes will be next and go for a visit!  There's always someone new slithering around and a never ending amount of things to learn!

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You can check out Sciensational Sssnakes at: http://www.scisnake.com/