- Good morning everybody, and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start of your day is as good
as it possibly can be, let's have a great day together.
I'm gonna start it by a little bit of distressing news.
Came in this morning, did my normal rounds,
and guess what?
There's something missing in this cage.
Unfortunately, we just didn't have this locked yesterday,
and that's one of the things that's a little more difficult
with these locks as opposed to the old ones
is you can't really see as well,
and so it was, it was really my fault,
I was the last one here, but it could have been anyone
that left it open, regardless,
Al was out and about last night.
(techno music)
And guess what, wasn't hard to find a 12 foot snake in here,
but let's hope I can get him down.
I definitely was like, "Oh my gosh" panicking,
so guess what?
Here is Al, right up on top.
Hi buddy, what's going on?
So I've got the ladder out over here,
I'm gonna climb up here and see if I can't get him down.
How did he get up there?
I mean, he came all the way from over there,
all the way over there,
and guys, we work really hard to
make sure snakes don't escape.
I mean, obviously it's just not a good situation.
Again, I'm gonna take the blame on this one,
'cause I was the last one here and I checked all the locks,
I obviously missed that one, so,
let's just get up there, hopefully get him,
make sure he didn't knock any thermostats out
and stuff like that, I still am trying to figure out
how that snake got all the way from the other side,
all the way up here on top of a cage like that.
So let's just go ahead and get him down.
Hey Al, what's going on buddy?
Come on over here, buddy.
You're okay, you're all right Al,
look at, he's such a puppy dog.
He doesn't even seem to care.
I was a little worried, like,
what was he gonna do when I tried to get him?
Was he gonna be defensive?
But he seems to not be worried at all,
so he's so cool, look at how tame he is.
So Al, did you enjoy your little wander, buddy?
And yeah, he did knock a couple lights over here,
that I have to just be a little careful of,
I'm gonna have to go readjust a few things,
but overall, nothing, I don't see any thermostats out,
so anyways, good to go,
we'll go ahead get Al back in his cage, come on buddy.
And like I said, this is a testament to how absolutely
incredible that animal is.
'cause oftentimes when an animal escapes,
they don't wanna go back in, you know?
So let's go ahead, get him back in his cage.
(techno music)
Time for you to stay in your cage this time.
I tell you what, crisis diverted.
That could have been bad,
I mean, in a lot of different ways that could have been bad.
So, again, I'm a little embarrassed that
I didn't figure out that the door wasn't locked,
but now that's something that I'm gonna have
to really check a lot harder,
because it's the first time we've had this problem
with these new enclosures.
I'm just gonna have to go through and tug on
every enclosure before I leave everyday.
'Cause I looked up and I thought everything was locked,
but obviously I was wrong.
But thank God, everything worked out.
Now we can the rest of our day started.
All right, so judging by the kind of destruction
that happened I'm kinda seeing where he went.
He was up on top here 'cause he moved
a couple lights around,
but only in the first cage.
So he's up there, I don't know if he went across here
over to there, or not, I'm not 100% sure.
But one of the things I do know, believe it or not,
and again, like I said, you just can't let snakes out.
This is my mistake, it's something you can't do,
and I won't let this happen again, I mean,
it's ridiculous that I did this.
But believe it or not, he was even in this room,
which is our back room, this was all knocked down,
the computer and all that stuff,
our security cameras are knocked down.
I'm gonna have Lori see if she can actually find
the security footage and see if we can track where this
guy was, 'cause he was obviously all over the place.
Again, it was only like eight hours
that I haven't been here, and it's crazy to see that.
And again, I'm embarrassed that it happened.
It's something that as an advanced collector like me,
should never, ever happen.
I mean, I know it happens on occasion,
you accidentally leave a cage, but we have to be better.
We have to be better, and I have to be better,
so anyways, like I said, crisis diverted,
could have been a lot worse, I'm not gonna lie to you.
So things worked out, it's fine,
and now we can get on to our regular scheduled day,
which I do have a pretty important topic
that I wanna cover today.
And that topic is really the topic that everyone
is thinking about right now as I'm going through
and just spot cleaning a bunch of animals here.
It's amazing how quick these things are kind of
blowing up already, I mean,
these mosaic Cal kings are just starting to really beef up.
Females will go really quick, but anyways, regardless,
obviously we all know that we're struggling right now.
You can see males and females are together, breeding here,
and it's understandable, so I wanted to,
rather than completely discard it,
talk about the fact that we're all gonna struggle
at some point, but we need to be in it together,
and again, what I'm trying to create here
is a little bit of a distraction for you guys.
That way you guys can have maybe 10 or 15
minutes a day where, you know,
we're just looking at animals, having a good time,
you know, doing it all through that.
These are actually lavender Cal kings,
and again, I'm just spot cleaning things.
But you know, the truth is,
is for me to just ignore the fact that the most
insane thing is happening right now, isn't really good, too.
I'm here to inspire you guys,
and kinda maybe try to help you through it.
Because listen guys, no matter what you think,
every single one of us over the next week,
two weeks, three weeks, whatever the case might be,
and then again, just more lavender Cal kings here,
again, blowing up already, it's crazy how quick it happens.
But you know, we're gonna need to be in this together.
'Cause again, the truth is,
I'm gonna have good days, I'm gonna have bad days,
you're gonna have good days, you're gonna have bad days.
So together we can try to get through 'em, right?
That's what's important.
And how do we go about that?
It's easier said than done, right?
To just say, oh yeah, just, you know, be all right,
or whatever, it doesn't really work really well.
The truth is, I'm gonna just go through some things
that are helping me, and like I said,
I think distraction is one that's kind of important.
This is actually a black pewter lesser cypress,
unbelievable here.
And you know, one of the things you could do
is if you do keep animals,
whether they're dogs, they're cats, they're reptiles,
whatever the case may be,
you can spend more time with those animals, right?
You know, do some fun stuff.
This is just an extreme enchi lemon blast,
which is really cool.
You know, think about this, maybe,
let's say you have a bearded dragon.
You guys see how we target train Elvis
and all of our big lizards,
maybe it's time for you to target train your bearded dragon.
By the way this is a banana enchi pin,
just, you know, pretty simple combo,
but just really beautiful.
Again, I'm spending more and more time with my animals,
just trying to keep myself distracted.
But you know, another thing you can do right now,
like I've mentioned before, I don't watch TV,
or I didn't watch TV, is, you know, take up a new hobby.
For me, I'm trying to watch some TV.
But let's say you wanted to learn a language,
or do a puzzle, or learn something new.
Now is the time, you know?
Pick up a guitar, go online and try to learn something
that you were thinking about doing for a long time.
Just a stinger bee banana, here,
and that'll keep you distracted, you know,
there's no time like now to actually do the things
that you've been thinking about doing,
you know, like I said, if you think,
"Gosh I really wanted to learn Italian" or
"I wanted to learn Spanish" give it a shot,
what else you got to do?
And that distraction's gonna give you a purpose,
and also keep you mentally stimulated.
Hey RJ, how you doing today?
No you're okay, just stay there buddy.
So Lori, you guys found footage of Al getting out?
- We did, we did find it,
we're just trying to get right to the moment
that he opened the door.
- Well he was on an adventure,
so I can't imagine what this is gonna look like,
so all right, I'll show you guys,
the adventures of Al Machino here at the Reptarium.
(comical jazz music)
Wow, I tell you what,
that footage was absolutely incredible,
and what that showed me, to be honest with you,
is how smart those animals are.
I mean, he used everything to climb.
He was on top of these enclosures,
climbed all the way on top here,
through the back, into the back room,
actually knocked over our computer,
climbed back out, all the way over here,
on top of these cages, came down here,
then crawled around, you could see he was looking in cages,
crawled all the way over to here, just insane,
and then ultimately climbed up this tree right here,
and ultimately stayed right there where we found him,
and, I mean, that just shows you a level of intelligence
of like, figuring things out, right?
How to get in a room, out of a room, and all over the place.
And I thought it was interesting how curious he was.
Again, looking at all the cages, much like Elvis.
So again, continue to be blown away at how
unbelievably intelligent these snakes are.
Even I didn't give him credit for this years ago.
I'm learning every day how amazing they are,
and again, this is a terrible situation,
but at the same time, it was fascinating to watch.
Continuing on with my daily Ivy watch.
Still kind of clearing up from the blue still,
still hasn't shed, still in the water,
moves around enough a lot, so,
again, I don't know what you guys think,
is she gonna shed in the water
or is she gonna climb on land?
I have no idea, but I think maybe two more days,
so I'll continue to keep you guys updated.
Hey little buddy, where you at?
Oh my gosh, these Ackie monitors are the best.
I mean, look how absolutely adorable these things are.
We've got two of them of course, it's a little pair,
and the other one's hiding in here.
They always hide underneath the dishes here,
I'm sure the other one, there's the other one.
Hey buddy, and again, we've been working a lot on
socializing them, and again, you know,
just something else we can spend even more time on
is training and behavioral training these animals
during this time and, you know,
another thing I wanted to bring up,
I'll just throw it out with things that are
kinda on my mind when it comes to this kind of
new reality that we're in for the short term,
number one, like I keep saying, this will pass.
It's not gonna be easy, it's gonna be tough,
we're all gonna suffer on different levels,
there's no doubt about that,
I'm just gonna get Potato out, here,
and weirdly enough, he's been extra,
kind of, running around lately.
He's usually pretty lazy,
but lately he's been a little bit more energetic.
But again, you know, try to stay positive guys.
I've been seeing on the socials here
that things have been getting a little bit more negative,
not necessarily on my stuff,
because you guys are usually pretty positive,
but I've been just seeing as I'm scrolling
through Instagram and Twitter, and doing all that stuff,
that people are getting a little bit crazy,
and I get it, I mean, I totally understand.
It's a tough time, you know?
And we're all gonna be suffering.
But you know what, try to stay positive, you know?
I always say that things like this bring the good
out in people, and they bring the bad out in people.
Try to kind of raise up and be a hero,
rather than a villain through this, you know?
I know it's frustrating, we can wake up we can be crabby,
we can, you know, think why, when is this gonna end?
I get it, I really understand.
I've been struggling with these things too, you know?
But I'm just trying to stay positive,
and you know, use distractions and the things
that we're gonna talk about in this video
to get you through your bad times,
realizing that there'll be good times as well.
Try not to lash out at people,
I understand the negativity in your life,
and all of our lives right now,
but if we can at least try to be a good community,
that's gonna really help us all get through this.
The Mexican black king, Midnight, actually shed.
It looks like a really nice shed too.
As a matter of fact, speaking of shed,
I know a lot of people are making jewelry out of sheds,
you guys know that, we're doing it as well,
and I know the crew said that they wanted to
get together this week and make a little more jewelry
out of the sheds that we have,
again, just continued distractions, you know what I mean?
It's like, everyone wants to keep going,
and again, we're lucky because we're able to come to work,
because we're an essential thing,
we're staying socially distanced like you cannot believe
right now, taking it very seriously.
But that being said, I think another thing that you guys
can do, and I know it's difficult,
this is a tough one, is exercise, you know,
start taking care of yourself.
You know, you can't go to the gym,
but you could do all kinds of things from your home,
just a little bit, you know,
even if it's just walking in place,
or doing pushups, or whatever the case may be.
Exercise is important because it does a couple things,
it really does lift your mental health, you know?
It basically, it burns cortisol which causes
stress and anxiety and stuff like that,
it also just increases endorphins that make you feel better,
so often times when I'm feeling a little bit like,
kinda cruddy and stuff like that,
I'll actually go to the gym.
Obviously can't go to the gym now,
but I can still do things around
the house to keep myself active.
The other thing to do is eat a little bit
more healthy if at all possible.
I know I certainly have, you guys may notice,
I've lost about 20 pounds.
Keep yourself healthy, because as your immune system
is going up through exercise and healthy eating,
you're gonna be able to ward off things,
or heaven forbid you get something bad,
your immune system's gonna be able to beat it better.
So again, take this time, do some exercising,
and start to eat a little bit more healthy.
It will bring your mental health up.
Time to feed the fish.
(techno music)
The good update on those is we didn't have one loss
when it came to the fish in this fish spa,
and so far it looks like all the fish in Bowser's tank
are still alive and doing well.
All the big ones we put in there yesterday
are still swimming around and seeming awesome,
so I think that we're doing pretty well here,
I'm just gonna sprinkle some food in here
for these guys as well.
I'm loving fish, man, maybe I'll become a fish
keeping channel too, but I don't know,
not a lot of space, but I can see maybe if we do the
Reptarium 3.0, maybe we'll have a section of aquatics,
let me know what you guys think about that.
Definitely missing the snake massage room,
just really missing having the Reptarium open at all,
you know, we've been shut now for two weekends in a row,
and I'm sure there's gonna be more weekends to come,
I have no idea when we're gonna be open again.
Hopefully here within the next few weeks we'll start
to get a little bit of good news, that's for sure.
This is just a beautiful albino corn snake
that I was using for the snake massage,
and I can't wait to share that experience
with you guys again when we're opened up.
It's gonna be absolutely amazing,
and like I mentioned, I'm not sure what we're gonna do,
but we'll do some big event, you know,
just to celebrate when it's safe for everyone
to get back together, there's no doubt about that,
and the last thing that I'm gonna suggest to you guys
is stay in touch with people, you know,
I've been reaching out to people this last week
that I haven't talked to in a year or two,
and even family members that I haven't talked to in years,
I've been reaching out to,
it's a good time to kind of reconnect.
You know, that positive vibe,
that positive energy out there is good for everything.
You guys can share each other's happiness,
and then you have a bigger support group.
The larger support group you have,
the better it is in this time,
and remember that we're in this together,
and thanks Al for the entertainment today.
Like I said, it does stink,
and I don't wanna have that representation
that we let things out here,
because the truth is, like, it happens.
I mean almost anyone that keeps reptiles
has had things let loose, and it's always our error,
so I'm gonna take the blame on this one.
But regardless, I'm just here to tell you that
I'll try to distract you as much as I can,
but we're gonna get through this, guys.
There will be some good news coming in the coming weeks,
and once that good news hits,
things are gonna start to feel a little bit better.
When we start to think maybe this is gonna end,
and we start to see it,
it's gonna make us all feel better,
because the uncertainty right now
is what's driving everyone crazy,
and it's okay to have bad days,
just remember that people like myself,
and the people around you are there for you.
We can do this together.
You can lift me up when I'm having a bad day,
and I'll continue to try to lift you guys up
when you're having bad days.
Regardless, we will get through this, guys,
and we're gonna celebrate like never before
when this thing is done.
Like I mentioned guys, we are gonna get through this.
Let me know in the comments what you think of my thoughts,
and what are you doing to get through this kind of
isolation period, not only of not being able to do things,
but also the mental part,
because that's the part that we have to continue
to work on together, and I'm here for you,
and I will continue to do everything I can possibly do.
If you want another distraction,
I do a podcast called Checking In,
you can subscribe to it right over here.
Listen to a couple of hours,
you can also catch it on Apple iTunes,
Spotify, so on like that.
Over here you can run through a
playlist of stuff if you so choose,
on this side you can subscribe to the vlog channel,
turn the post notifications on if you don't mind.
Again, I love you guys, stay safe out there,
try to have the best day you can, be kind to someone,
I promise I'll see you guys tomorrow.