When one door closes...

After 15 years I am closing my shop. I was going to give it one more year (I've been saying that for the last three years) but apparently my landlord has found someone who will be able to keep up on the rent so he is not renewing my lease. It kind of sucks but it was the kick in the pants I needed to make the tough decision (actually it was made for me) and I am perfectly fine with it. I am actually looking forward to making reptiles my hobby again.

The good news, perhaps the great news, is that I have an meeting/interview on Saturday morning with a local couple who travel all over the country giving science demonstrations to schools, summer camps, scout troops etc. They have programs for physics, chemistry, ecology, entomology and a couple of others and they are looking to add a reptile program to their menu.

The problem is that their programs are a little bit more professional than the ones I did for local classrooms and local state parks. I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what I can do to impress them. All the people I have done shows for have said I did a great job but for the most part they are friends, what are they going to say. Another problem is that I have not done any shows for a while and I don't have much in the way of animals to even use. I've got a great bearded dragon, and awesome large savannah monitor and a pair of monkey tail skinks for the lizard part and a couple of mountain kingsnakes and a nice Dumerils boa for the snakes but that is about it. Certainly not enough to do an hour long program. The last problem is that when I close my shop all I will have a a small two bedroom apartment available to keep my animals in and I don't think my landlord there would be too keen on me moving in a bunch of large reptiles.

I'm trying to think of animals that would make good presentations. I'm thinking of 1.2 or 1.3 of corns with different genetics as this would also give me the option of breeding them and selling some of the offspring. I had a 12 foot albino burm at one point but I got rid of it about 5 years ago but I don't know if that would work anyway with the out of state shows they do. I thought of looking for a nice 9-10 foot female boa. Something that would not be to big to handle. A nice big tortoise would be great but I don't know if I really want to go through everything it would take to get one and keep one properly. I do have a nice female albino bullsnake that I was thinking about selling but I may hold onto her now. I'm going to talk to some people I know at the Chicago Herp society and see if they can recommend anything. I know they have a member who does a "snake stick" thing where he has several types of colubrids that all hang out on a branched stick and that is one thing that this guy mentioned.

Anyway, I've got a lot of thinking to do between now and Saturday morning. I'll probably have to do a bit of rehearsing as well in case they want an impromptu performance. I'll probably have to get a new wardrobe as well, my jeans and T-shirts may not cut it.

I will miss certain aspects of the retail operation but there will be many things I won't miss and it may actually turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to me. I'll probably stick around here though so if you thought you would be done with my long winded posts you may not be so lucky.

Steve- multiple morphs of corns are great. You can also do the ball python morph thing- they love the pieds for some reason.
Big python is always a show-stopper, as is a big tortoise, monitor (savannah, white throat) on a leash, and of course a gator. I have been amazed at a few animals people love to see and touch in our programs- Blue Tongue Skinks among the lizards, Small boas- rubber, sand boas - can lead to a very theatrical bit "want to see an adult boa constrictor?"
I have also found that some local angle (native species) balances the exotics, althoug licensing is more difficult in many states on natives than on exotics.

Good luck and stay in touch if you have questions.- BTW- will be passing through your area in July.