As I mentioned in a previous post, November 16th was Darlene's birthday. After supper with Angela, her friend Michael and the grandkids at The Lonestar in Harlingen, I attended to my typical late night ritual of checking e-mail after we got home. As I walked into the snake room to access my computer, an unusual shape in one of the African bush viper cages caught my eye. There, to my surprise, was not one but two babies sitting on the branch next to mom (I found a third the next morning). I was excited about the uncommon babies but I was more excited because it was Darlene's birthday.
This is not the first time babies have been born on a family member's birthday. For several years, eyelash vipers were born on Darlene's dad's birthday, October 8th (it's also the birthday of a close friend and co-worker). That became my time-line in telling potential customers when they could expect eyelash babies. Then, in 2005, a litter of African bush vipers was born on my sister's birthday, August 7th. One baby in that litter happened to be the rarest color morph of that particular species, solid black.
Some will call me silly but I view these births as something mysterious, if not spiritual. Can it be just a coincidence that these births happen on family member's birthdays with no manipulation of the breeding dates on my part? In my Native American culture, snakes are regarded as "supernaturals" with special powers of intercession. And they are widely regarded as brothers.
So, is it just a coincidence that 11 more African bush vipers were born last night, on my BROTHER'S BIRTHDAY?
Red phase African bush viper (Atheris squamigera) born on Darlene's birthday
Multi-colored green African bush viper born on Darlene's birthday
Gold phase born on Darlene's birthday
Black phase male born on my sister's birthday
Several of the 11 African bush vipers born last night on my brother's birthday
20 comments:
Baby, what an amazing piece of work! Having so many babies born on family birthdays does seem less and less incidental with each occurence.
The photos are fabulous and do justice to your insightful post.
darlene
Thank you. Part of the reason I couldn't sleep last night was that I felt a "visitor". Maybe he was watching his birthday babies being born.
Interesting! Maybe the visitor helped By-Tor get in with the tortoises....
The impications are pretty obvious to me....you need to grow your family so there will be more birthdays and, therefore, more viper births. Duhhhh. Or maybe you could talk Darlene into having multiple birthdays per year? That'd be more gifts for her and more vipers for you. Win-Win.
York - We have Anevay and Delsin now so more birthday births are not out of the question. I think Darlene is content with just one birthday a year though.
York,
Your logic is quite unique and humorous! ;-) I'm LMAO, really =D
Let's see now:
More kids? No! My baby boy is going to be 27 in February. No!
More b'days / year = more presents vs. getting older faster, dying sooner just so Jim could have more snakes? No!
Your idea might be win-win for Jim but ...uhm... not so win-win for me! No! But thanks for trying to help. I know that your heart was in the right place =)
I learn something new every time I read your blog. I didn't realize there were so many different color variations within one species of snake. Your photos show the different colors beautifully.Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for commenting Sandy. I hope your recovery from surgery (PhD boy insisted I not ask what happened) continues to go well.
I look forward to seeing more of your new blog in days to come.
Do take care!
Loved the blog, dad. I agree there is something to be said or thought about new life on shared dates especially birthdays.
Have a great day! Love you.
Ang
Thanks Ang!
Now we need a batch of February birthday babies for you, Brandon and me.
Hope you have a great day too!
Love you!
Did you mention that you did not have any new births on October 8th this year? I think there must have been a reason for that.
Yes, but notice the day you come back to work at BRO, babies are born! My how we've missed you, man!
Perhaps you could try adopting, if birthing new family members is out of the question. Or adopt me and maybe I will start having babies born on your birthdays, too. At this point, I'm willing to try just about anything!
Congrats on the babies! They are superb and you should be very proud. Good thing I remember the birth of my sons so vividly because I am forgetting what it's like to be a snake papa.
Derek - No need for us to adopt, you're already a part of the family!
Thanks for the compliment on the squammies. You know how these things go, next year it could be you and I could be squammie-less!
I can't believe you haven't thanked me for loaning you my Barry White CDs. Clearly, they have proven effective with this year's crop.
Congrats.
XXXX - Your Barry White CDs just weren't getting any results so PhD boy let me borrow his entire Barry Manilow collection. What a difference! Of course now, PhD boy wants all the credit and is trying to weasel in on my future sales.
These comments are all great!! I'm LMAO when I should be focusing on responsibilities!
I am pretty sure that Jim has always said that he plays Barry White for the snakes on their date nights... No, I am 100% sure. I just don't see the La Vibora snakes groovin' to Manilow =0 Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure they prefer some Nine Inch Nails or perhaps Zepplin if they are feeling nostalgic!
Derek - Your squams might prefer some industrial metal over the Barry White. It's worth a try. On the other hand, I think Jim has some kind of Native American mojo that he is keeping from all of us. He won't share his fountain of youth secrets with me either so I am of no use here!
These posts and comments keep getting better and better!
darlene
Well happy birthday to one and all.
And the babies are gorgeous!
Congrats to all!
beth
Thanks Beth! I think they're gorgeous too. These guys go through so many color changes early in life. I'm looking forward to documenting those changes for all to see.
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