Photo by Christina Kretchmer
As one of her keepers for the past eight years, I have a lot of fun stories to share about Daisy, our 20-year-old female Burmese python that died this past January (read more here).
My favorite one was the first time I was asked to throw her a birthday party. It was April 2005 and Daisy was turning 13. I had only been working at the Zoo for seven months and had never thrown an animal birthday party. The dilemma I faced was, ‘How does one throw a party for a snake?’
I crossed a feeding off the list. The following day was Easter so I assumed most visitors would not have liked to watch her eat her favorite meal: a rabbit. Also, we always had to pull Abby, our other Burmese python (whom still resides here at the Zoo) out of the exhibit so they didn’t try to eat the same rabbit.
What else could I do?
Normally when another animal at the Zoo has a party, decorations and banners are put up, so I spent a good hour decorating. There was a banner on all three sides of the exhibit with various decorations. I wish I had taken a picture, the exhibit looked great! I still needed to give her a gift so I placed some new branches inside her exhibit. The branches helped make the exhibit look more natural, provided new scents for her to smell and gave her surfaces to rub on (to help her shed). We had lots of visitors come to celebrate and sing “Happy Birthday” to her. The media was even there filming the party. The party was a big success!
- Catina Wright, zoo keeper
You gave her a great life. She was one of a kind.