Flavor of Creativity

I held a snake for the first time this past week. I have touched snakes before, and they are very nice and smooth, but I had never held a snake before. One of my roommates had acquired a snake for a pet recently, a three to four foot corn snake. Beautiful little snake. When I held the snake it was cold; snakes are cold blooded in case you did not know, and the scales underneath felt weird as the snake moved around my arm. The scales on the underside of the snake had what kind of felt like sharp edges, kind of like touching the edge of a piece of firm paper in the wrong way, which usually results in some kind of paper cut. The scales did not create any lesions on the skin or anything, but just felt... well, different when it moved. When it was not moving, the scales on its underside were smooth, kind of like the rest of the snake, but a bit more sleek. I was a little worried that the snake would tighten around my arm like a hungry boa constrictor, but it moved around as if it were slithering on a tree. I knew if I had shown any signs of fear it probably would have started to squeeze, so I stayed calm, which was pretty easy since I was more fascinated by the snake than afraid of it. There is still no chance I will ever hold a larger snake such as a boa constrictor or burmese python, but the experience of actually holding a snake was a fun one. The only part of the snake I was most worried about was the head, because that is where the teeth are.