Like My Own Daughter

Like My Own Daughter 

by Jeni Nurmawati

His beloved snake

The sky seemed grotesque when he was on his way home, knowing that last night his lovely pet, a three-years old reticulated phyton snake, named Aya, was gone from the glass cage where she usually stayed. No one in the house knew where she was. All his family members could not hide their emotion that they were very worried about her, though it wasn’t the first time she gone. On that day, the entire people got frightened for the first time when one of his snakes just ran away.

“It does not mean anything”, said Ryan Ramadhan Suas, a reptile lover, tried to keep himself amused.

When he arrived home at 7 p.m with his expectation that Aya was already came back home, he got a shocking news told by his mother that Aya was found and beaten up to death by a group of villager living there. His neighbor was the witness of that situation.

He just damaged in silence. It was terrible.

The world was like exploded, ruined, and shattered. He won’t believe that it was real, but his mother’s eyes never tell a lie. He could not control his anger, and decided to take a shower to cleared his mind but it won’t healed and got worse and worse.

He began to cried desperately.

After that he started to tell a story about Aya. She is one of his three snakes he had beside Ara the bold phyton, and Ana the boa, bought about three years ago from his well-known friend. First thing first, what isthe trigger which brought him to pet a snake where there are many cute and tame animals such as dogs, cats, or even rabbits. Well, this question become an interesting part for him, because he believe he can conquer the wild animals by himself in spite many people thought it may danger him sometime.

“I’m very proud when I can do something which people think it is impossible to do.”

“I really wanted to have a snake since childhood. I’ve collected the photos and read many articles related to snakes, which made me become more excited day by day. After that I started thinking about having and caring of them, and  I didn’t believe that I could afforded them when I was a college student.”

He really loves a non-venomous snake. Life is miserable without having a lovely pets which are really bonding with him. His excitementover snakes once ever led him to dreamed about having a snakes farm.

It’s nearly impossible for him to find out the lacks of raising the snake.He enjoys take care of them because snakes do not have any furs. Furs may cause asthma for anyone whom allergic to it, unlike the snake which are really save for people suffering asthma.

Aya the Reticulated Phyton

“There are three out of many reasons why I love to handle a snake”, said him. First, the snakes are really strong in maintaining their hunger, so he feed them only once or twice a week. It is suitable for people who have a tight schedule whose times are very limited for caring their pets. The second, the snakes have a good self-resistance to their surrounding. They can survive in any kinds of temperature, dry or wet, even ina less-oxygen place. The last reason which he love the most, is their skin patterns are really adorable because it has its own characteristic, and always different depend on their species.

“It is really fascinating when you can play around with them, and also with their skin pattern. You can cross-breed them to create a new unique pattern to make it distinct with other snake, and I would never stop amazed with it”, said him enthusiastically with the glared eyes.

Suddenly, his eyes began to flooded again with tears, recalled with the unforgettable memories he spent together with her.

“She is the most understanding creature God ever created for me. I still remember when I was a college student, she always nodded at me when I told her my problems. I’m not sure about it, but she acted like she understand all my words.”

Aya had been very loyal to him, waited for him to come in his bedroom. Sometimes when he got home, she tricked him by disappeared and hidden in the cupboard. Sometimes she got angry when she got hungry by bitten his hand, but turned to be very slothful when she got fulled. The funniest thing he had ever done to her is tickle her genital part, and she got mad. She was being cold to him for a day and didn’t want to be touched.

“Well, If I remember how I treated her until she raised properly, and became bulky, it really shatter my heart into pieces. I treated her like my own daughter. I can’t believe yesterday is the last day I saw her.”

Although it was hard for him to face the fact, he should have let her go sincerely to make her feel peace. He could not hold his tears any longer. He cried again like he did in a bathroom a few hours ago, and called her name a few times. He apologized for his reckless in protecting her, and said ;

“I really hope that Aya forgive me and she get a peaceful life there in heaven, and also a plenty of foods.”