• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

What a find for a bathroom

Donald C

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Would have been very happy to swap places with this guy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...t-with-her-bare-hands/?utm_term=.b9302f24087b

Frankly, it could have been a lot worse. Wade Vielock could have been sitting on the toilet when the enormous snake slithered its way out of the porcelain throne.

Lucky for the Bee County, Tex., man, Vielock was simply cleaning his bathroom, or as a Patch writer put it, “not using it in a way that would have given the blue indigo a tactical advantage.”

But the opportune timing did not make the scenario any less terrifying.

Last weekend, Vielock’s 6-year-old son pointed out the five- to six-foot-long indigo snake poking its body about halfway out of the toilet.

“I looked back at the toilet and that snake was about 3 feet out, climbing towards the window,” Vielock told KSAT. “It took at least six years off my life.”

In a panic, Vielock ran out of the bathroom so fast he accidentally knocked down his son, he said.

Once he got his bearings, Vielock had to figure out what to do with the colossal reptile. He called his friend, a local taxidermist, and asked for advice.

The blue indigo snake, also known as the Eastern indigo snake is actually harmless, it turns out. While it is not venomous, and rarely bites people, it does on occasion use its muscular jaws to bite its prey or its enemies headfirst. The eastern indigo also happens to be the longest snake species in North America, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And because it is a “threatened” and protected species, this is not a snake you should handle without a permit — no matter how confident you might be.

Eventually, Vielock called the Bee County Sheriff’s Office to handle the situation.

“Snake wrangler” may or may not be in Lindsay Scotten’s job description, but in Texas, a sheriff’s deputy must always be prepared.

By the time Scotten arrived at Vielock’s ranch, the snake had made its way out of the toilet and into the bathroom vanity, according to the Bee County Sheriff’s Office. As Vielock held a flashlight over her shoulder, the deputy got down on her knees and calmly wrangled the blue indigo out of there with her bare hands.

“The snake was not harmed and was released back into the brush,” the Bee County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. The deputy is pictured posing with Vielock’s son, and smiling as she holds onto the snake at both ends.

“Good job Deputy Scotten,” the sheriff’s office wrote.

The deputy made snake-wrangling look like a breeze, but apparently she told Vielock “she can’t kill a cockroach.”

“I told her she can call me anytime she wants and I’ll come kill all the cockroaches she wants if she gets that snake out of the house,” Vielock told KSAT.

Hundreds of comments flooded the Facebook post from the sheriff’s office, praising the deputy for her bravery.

“I couldn’t ever do it!” Paula Perkins wrote.

“Definitely a better and braver woman than I will ever be,” Patty Ramey said.

“I would be that guy just watching too,” wrote one observer, Keith Farrell.

“Poor guy is never going to hear the end of this,” said another.

Irene Howe wondered if the deputy knew initially what kind of snake she would be dealing with. For all we know, she may have entered that bathroom prepared to tackle a creature packed with venom.

“Now that is Texas Tough,” Howe wrote.

Some local commentators said indigo snakes are a welcome presence in their homes. Not only are they generally harmless to humans, indigos prey on venomous snakes.

“Love those snakes,” Donna Thane wrote, “wish they would turn them loose in my yard.”

“Beautiful snake, I have a six footer around my house,” Joe Garza said. “Haven’t seen a rattler around here since it moved in and around my property.”

“That’s a baby,” Joseph Richard Hammond said of the indigo pictured in Vielock’s home, “have seen them in South Texas as big as drill pipe.”

According to the Bee County Sheriff’s Office, there has been a spike in snake calls this year, due to weather conditions.

“Residents are encouraged to be aware of their surroundings,” the sheriff’s office wrote.

So perhaps next time you use the restroom in Texas, take a careful look.
 
That's awesome! I'm so glad the snake wasn't harmed and was released. Nothing interesting ever comes out of my plumbing...:ack2: Guess I wasn't born lucky. I've relocated my share of wild snakes including rattlesnakes, it's really fun to see the expressions on people's faces when a woman has to rescue them. ;) And if you stay calm, many serpents do too.
 
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