Ok good to hear that you already know the laws.....oh and the white sided black rat (actually called an eastern rat now) is actually on an exempt list of animals that can be kept. No thamnophis "mutations" are on this list, just the eastern rat and eastern milksnake. (Actually had a hand in helping get the laws to where they are now through my herp society.....as much as they suck....they were going to be A LOT worse!) As far as it being pallidulus....yeh, it's WAY too far south for that. It is a real shame, I'd love to be able to work with various T.s.sirtalis morphs, but because of the laws, I'm working with pallidulus....and they're A LOT harder to get.