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Show Pre-Med Roommate Sammy the snake : a six-foot baby By Ed Ditterline Staff Writer "If he starts coming toward you faster, just sit there and don't get excited because he'll strike," Ron said, as the six foot boa constrictor slithered across the carpet toward me with a strange look in his beady eyes. Many people have difficulties with their roommates, but Ron Foster, a University pre-med student doesn't argue with his, because the results could be fatal. Sam, the boa constrictor, shares Ron's room along with tank after tank, bottle after bottle and tub after tub of some of the strangest fish in the world. Ron's room has also been the home of Harry, a disconcerted piranha, who, in a fit to swallow his goldfish dinner, swallowed his former owner's finger tip instead. As Sam decided to change his direction and climb up inside the television cabinet, I had the distinct feeling that I just had to turn on the television. Perhaps it was merely the feeling of self-preservation, but I managed to stifle my instincts as I heard Ron saying, "Sam is really obnoxious when he starts to molt. His eyes get all milky-white and it looks like he has a cold. During his molting period, I stay away from him because he strikes at any kind of heat." Habits Urging Ron to tell me more about Sam's habits so that I could protect myself should my wife ever bring home one of these slimy creatures I immediately corrected myself. Slimy isn't right according to Ron. He says that people who say snakes are slimy don't know what they are talking about because snakes don't have any kind of gland which secrets slime. "Snakes aren't slimy like the salamander," said Ron, "come on, feel him, he's as docile as a kitten." Sam was scrunched up closely to Ron's body to absorb all the heat possible. Somehow he did look docile, but the simile about the kitten didn't encourage me in the slightest to touch a boa who could sit up almost as high as I am tall. "Sam's only a tiny baby, aren't you Sam," said Ron as he stuck his nose in Sam's "face" to show his affection. "Boas, when they are full grown, can be 14 feet long and usually they will weigh around 250 pounds," Ron said as I felt my eyes bulging out of my head watching Sam get his tail wrapped around Ron's waist. "Don't worry, he needs to get his teeth lodged in something in order to be able to constrict tightly enough to do any harm. His teeth will be about three inches long when he is grown. Although he is not poisonous, the big danger is getting him off you because he can't retract his fangs. You have to stick your arm or whatever else happens to be in his mouth further down his throat to unhook the fangs and then you might be able to get out. If you can't, you may have to cut off his head," Ron said somewnat sadly as though he hoped the situation would not present .itself. "It's time to feed Sam," Ron yelled to one of his friends down the hall. "Ok, just a minute" was the rather weak and hoarse reply which came from the bathroom. For a while, I wasn't exactly sure who was going to be Sam's dinner, so not taking any chances, I picked up my coat and prepared to leave just to make sure it wasn't my blood which was going to be given. "Sam is just eating a mixture of pablum and vitamins today," Ron said, and I began to slowly walk back toward the beast. (In order to be sure, I remained behind the wall and peered around the corner to watch the process.) Ron went into the bedroom and came back with a bowl, a spoon and a syringe with a plastic tube connected to it. "Sam hasn't been feeling well ever since he made his trip from the coast," Ron said, "so we haven't been feeding him mice. When he gets stronger we will feed him meat, but for now he is on a diet." Taking the pablum into the syringe, opening Sam's mouth and shooting the pasty-looking stuff down his throat in a tube full of air bubbles made me wonder if snakes burp after being fed. Trying not to make light of the situation where Sam was being held down by one person, his mouth being forced open by another, being fed by a third, I wondered what the little white mouse who had just come out of a hole in the wall thought of the situation as he looked at the hissing snake. As you can imagine, by this time my reflexes were not working too well from the shocks of the day and I took the presence of the little mouse more calmly than Sam did. Ron explained to me later that the mouse was from the labs at the University. Not being too concerned about one mouse, Ron told me that there was another one around somewhere. "We don't worry," Ron's friend said, "some day when Sam is feeling better we will turn him loose and he'll find them." Somehow my heart managed to thump a couple of times for the little mouse as he sat there with a Boy, would I like to take a bite out of Sam" look on his furry little face. J Deadly Enemies "The mouse is the most dangerous enemy of the snake. Becuase snakes are basically lazy, they won't eat unless they are hungry, so the worst thing to do is to put a live mouse in a cage with a snake who sn t hungry. The mouse trying to preserve his own hide will attack dSdnak" " SSd" S6lf PrteCti0n itS P0SSible t0 h8Ve 3 Wanting to encourage the mouselet as much as possible, I bent over to g ve him a reassuring pat on the back and Sam decided he was going S to? TZu 3 AS he Slithered down Ron's leS d between mv Wk m Mhered down the yellow stripe which ran down Wends I tnw w rmg V? Rn know Sam and I weren't best of aDDroach p ? behmd 8 g0od distance I apprehensively going to nfeef m,WOndetingWhat ther rd beasties 1 was , |