Ellie came to Zooniversity 5 years ago, after being found by a police officer in an abandoned garage in Irving, Texas. Someone had put her in a small plastic box to die. She laid in that box for more than a year without food or water. The only other thing in that box was a rat skeleton and her open wounds from where the rat tried to eat her.

   This is not a house pet. Large constrictors belong where nature intended them to be -- in the rainforest. Unfortunately, most pet stores sell the tiny hatchlings without full disclosure of their eventual adult size. And, when no longer wanted, they are discarded like Ellie or "set free" to either die or to populate a non-native habitat.