Harris Coupland

(Dumfries & Galloway)

My name is Harris and I am 7 years old. I have just got my first Corn Snake. I think that they call it an 'amelanistic' because it  is orange and has no black on it. I just call it 'Fizzy'.

I saw my first snake at Kirkcudbright Wild Life Park last year (I think it was a Snow Corn) and I was hooked. I got my  photogragh taken and Mum now uses it as a screen saver on the computer. I kept asking my Mum and Dad to get one but they wouldn't agree. Eventually, after a  lot of going on they said that I might be allowed one if I found out how to keep  it. I went to the Library and I looked on the internet with my Mum and found out where the best place to buy one was (R.D.Rintoul's, Bathgate) and what we needed to keep it in and what it ate.

On Easter Monday we (Mum, Dad, Stewart, Fraser and I) went to Bathgate to get my new snake and everything that it needed and before we left the shop it shed it's first skin. I was really excited and I have kept it so that I can see how big it has grown. At the moment we keep it in a small tank but my Dad is going to  build a vivirium especially for it. I might even help him if he is good!!!

At first I was a bit scared to handle it as he was very fast but now I think it's great fun to feel it slither over my hands and through my fingers. Mum and Dad are now hooked, but I think that Mum wanted it just as much as me. A few of our friends don't like snakes so they don't visit now, but Mum says it will save on coffee.

I am really enjoying learning all about my snake and I have already done 'show and tell' (just a picture as my teacher doesn't like snakes) at my school.

Harris