11/21/2024
The FedEx office has never been so much fun.
I got there about 8:30 this morning to pick up a routine animal shipment. Nothing too exciting: a three-pack of amblygydi (tailless whipscorpions), another giant African millipede because the price was right and the one I have needs company, and a yellow uromastyx (spiny-tailed dab lizard). I was second in line, behind a young man and his dad, while a woman got in line behind me.
The fellows in front of me appeared to pretty excited and/or nervous. In my experience, the pacing and overall anxiety I was witnessing could only mean one thing: These guys were picking up an animal. I’ve never seen anyone get super excited about picking up a 3/4” tension belt for a CX3000 discombobulator.
I decided to break the ice.
“It’s like Christmas, isn’t it?”, I said.
The younger man was about to bust. “Yes, it is!”
“Are you picking up an animal? What are getting?”
He excitedly rattled off what seemed to be Latin, but I thought I had heard “arthropod” in the mix. They were nervous and concerned because the shipment was supposed to have arrived yesterday, so the shipment had been in shipment for about 48 hours.
I asked for clarification on what he had ordered.
It was a Pacific octopus. My new friends were salt water enthusiasts.
Salt water tanks are not my strong suit. That’s not to say I don’t have experience. In fact, one time, I actually had a Pacific octopus. I maintained several salt water tanks while stationed at the Entomology Lab of the Preventive Medicine Department at the Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan. These salt water tanks had anemones, clown fish, mantis shrimp, cone shells, and what ever else I could catch while snorkeling or searching tidal pools. My favorite animals I had there were a lion fish, a yellow-lipped sea krait (that blue and black sea snake you might have seen in pictures), and the aforementioned Pacific octopus.
Along with a minimally impressive display of local insects and other arthropods, I also kept several venomous snakes (the Okinawan habu, Sakishima habu, and the smaller, stockier himehabu, along with a common non-venomous snake known locally as the akamata). Classrooms and scout troops would come by, and I’d talk to the kids about the animals, even going on television (the Far East Network or FEN) to discuss potential threats to the military and their dependents.
Reflecting on this, I guess I was critter-keeping before critter-keeping was cool.
I say “maintained.” What I really mean by that is that once a week, on Navy time, I’d take a few hours and go down to the East China Sea with a bunch of large empty buckets. I still don’t know a blessed thing about regulating the salinity or pH. I would fill these buckets with sea water and switch out the water in the tanks. Of course, since I was there, and since I blocked off the whole day, I always nosed around those tidal pools, and on one occasion, caught that octopus in a butterfly net.
I don’t even remember how long I had that octopus. It was no more than a few weeks, I imagine, until we just didn’t see it anymore. I knew they had amazing camouflage; I just didn’t fully appreciate what an escape artist they can be. It might have been a month or two later, while rearranging the Ento lab, we found the dead octopus under a shelving unit. We had to scrape it off the tile floor with a spatula.
Ah, but I digress, and badly. My friends had to immediately check on their shipment because of its delay in the cooler weather, so they began opening the box. Their biggest bag had an impressive species of stingray, which we finally ascertained had survived the transit.
The octopus was eventually found - in a small jar at the bottom of the box. It too, was alive, but much smaller than the buyer was promised.
“I know your pain,” I commiserated.
While the lady behind me was getting her package, I was told that, “You got to see what we got, what did you get?”
I usually open my stuff once I get home, but I was quick to whip out my knife to slice the tape securing my box, and eventually showed off my uro (which was also slightly smaller than advertised), three large tailless whipscorpions, and the giant millipede. Temperature-wise, they were cooler than what I was comfortable with, but at this writing, all are comfortable in new enclosures.
Meanwhile, we almost let the lady who was behind me sneak out the door carrying her box labeled “Live Reptiles.”
“Oh,” she demurred, “these are just ball pythons.”
I don’t know if it was me or Nick who said, “Break them out. We have to see them.”
Both the pythons were adults - I expected juvenile specimens - and one of them I found to be stunning. She and her husband just started breeding ball pythons.
Nick and his dad run Beach vibe tours, and even have a float in the upcoming Easley Christmas parade.
Nick and Jen, it was great meeting you. That FedEx lady seemed to have a pretty good time as well!
