okay... so seeing as a few people have found injured snakes this year... i figured it was time to tell this story.... i have to start off by telling you what happened before so that you understand why i did it...

so i baught 2 corn snakes... my first ever REAL pets... so they were eating and doing great... then all of a sudden the female got mouth rot..... i did everything i could... i took her back to the guy that i bought her from and he showed me how to treat it and so i took it back home... and she never got better... she stopped eating and eventually past on.... so then the male that i still had was alone but still doing great... i got a second female for christmas and they went into brumation shortly after.... but they never came out.... i tried everything that i could... i force fed them... but they always through it up.... the female was much smaller than the male... and so she went first.... then after months of trying to get them to eat... he past on too.....

so ever since then i vowed never to buy another again... no matter how much i wanted it.... so then i found chance... he had been hit buy a lawn mower... and he had no skin for about 3 inches down his body.... you could see his muscle and some of his organs... thank god they were not damaged.... i still believed that i could have done more for my corns.... somehow i could have made them eat... somehow i could have saved them... somehow i had failed...... so.... i swore to save him.... i knew that his chances weren't good.... as i had seen one just like this dead.... but i felt like it was my chance to make up for my corns... i felt like it was my duty to save it..... like i HAD to.... so i did...... i put bacitracin on it 3 times daily... for 6 months... i cleaned his cage daily... i changed his water daily... and i fed him about once a week... because i knew that it would be a slow healing wound... and i knew that if he lost his strength he would never make it...... i'm guessing that he was a yearling and he was full of energy.... after his first shed i somehow knew he would survive.... eventhough he still had a very open... very exposed... very bad wound.... so i kept up with his cleaning and medicating and feeding... and he started to improve... finally after about 6 months he had a fresh layer of skin over the wound... but this skin was so thin and so new that you could literally see through it... so i waited.... and waited... and waited... and finally about 2 months later you could no longer see through his skin... it was still alot lighter than the rest of his body... but he was well enough to start acting like he wanted to go.... he wanted to leave.... and i knew it... he would escape often no matter what i did to prevent it... and so i did... eventhough i loved him... i let him go....

and i no longer have regrets... i no longer feel like i could have saved the corns... i no longer feel like i have to make up for something that was never my fault in the first place... i no longer feel in debt...... but i will forever keep my vows to never buy another snake again..... no matter how much i want to....................