I'm like a werewolf with gel.

我想要你們做我想要你們做的!

Hi, guys, it's Em.

嗨!大家好，我是Em。如果你想要忘記世界上的不愉快、你的債、你學校的功課或是你的另一伴快要把你惹瘋了!

If you wanna forget about the woes of the world and about your debts,

快來這裡加入我們，因為這裡很有趣!也有很多教育的東西!

and about the schoolwork that has to be done, and about your spouse who's driving you crazy,

很有趣!加入我們!

Come and join us over here, because it's a lot of fun and we do a lot of learning, too.

加入我們!!!

It's fun. Join us. (whispering) Join us.

今天我想跟你們介紹我的女孩-Kaa

Today, I want to introduce to you, my girl, Kaa.

Kaa 是隻球蟒(ball python)或(royal python)，不同說法依據你在世界上何處

Now, Kaa is a ball or royal python, depending on where in the world you are.

如果你在美國地區，他們習慣稱這種蟒蛇叫做球蟒(ball python)

Um, if you're in the states, they tend to call this species of python a ball python,

因為他們受到威脅的時候會捲曲成一顆緊密的球

because when they are threatened, they can actually roll into a really tight ball.

如果你們像我一樣在英國地區

And if you are in the UK, like where I am, we tend to call them royal pythons.

我們習慣稱牠們作球蟒(royal python)

Here on YouTube, I will refer to her as a ball python. So, this is Kaa, my ball python.

在youTube這裡我們就稱她作球蟒(ball python)吧

Let's just clear this up right now.

這是Kaa，我的球蟒

Yes, her name is Kaa. Yes, she is named after the snake in The Jungle Book. No, they're not the same species.

先讓我們釐清一點。是的，她的名字叫做Kaa

It works for her, deal with it.

是的，她的名字是以森林王子(The Jungle Book)裡的蛇來命名的

Kaa and I go way, way back. Kaa is now, at least, twelve years old and I've had her for eleven years.

不，牠們不是同一種物種。對她行得通啦!忍忍吧

Kaa comes into my life when she was rescued by a friend of mine.

Kaa跟我認識非常久了

So, I didn't actually rescue Kaa, Kaa was rescued by someone else and then passed onto me.

Kaa現在最少12歲了

Um, but the place that she was rescued from was, um, some man's home,

我養她11年了

who actually won her in a game...who does that?!

當我朋友救援了Kaa的時候，她來到我生命中

Who actually decides that a snake, or like another living creature is a prize?

所以並不是我一開始救援她的，是我的朋友救了她之後帶來給我

I just don't think that animals should be won... I don't know, it just doesn't sit well with me.

她從一個男人家裡救出她，那個男人是從一個遊戲贏來這隻蛇的

Does it sit well with you? I don't know, maybe I'm just uber sensitive.

誰會這麼做!誰決定把一隻蛇或者另外一些活生生的動物當作獎品

Her story, from what I know, because we'll never know the full story, it's just impossible, because, you know

我不覺得動物應該被當作獎品來贏得

this is what I was told by my friend who rescued her.

這是否讓你坐立難安?至少我是，我不知道，也許是我太敏感吧。

He was told by the guy who actually won her, so this is kinda Chinese whispers, but bare with me.

她的故事就我所知，我們永遠也不知道整個完整的故事，那是不可能的

So, Kaa was a prize.

這個故事是救出她的朋友轉述的，而他也是從救出的地方聽來的，這有點像是繞口令

And, literally, it would've been, some guy brought this snake to the pub,

所以Kaa以前是個獎品

like, "I don't want this snake anymore," or "This would - like, here! This would make a great prize!

有個人把這隻蛇帶到酒吧

Let's just bring a snake to this pub and play cards and see who wins it."

就像是他不想要這條蛇了，或者是他覺得這會是個好獎品，把她帶去酒吧吧

I have no idea if they were actually playing cards, or darts, or anything,

玩個牌看誰能贏走她

I'm just gonna assume that they were playing strip poker. There we go.

我不知道他們是在玩什麼遊戲，可能是牌、飛鏢或其他遊戲，我就假設他們在玩脫衣撲克好了

Winning a game of strip poker and a snake is the prize.

贏了撲克的就可以贏得這隻蛇

The guy who actually ended up winning her was not a fan of snakes, but he still accepted her as a prize

最後贏走她的人並不是蛇的愛好者，但是他還是接受她作為獎品，因為他贏了那個遊戲，不管那是什麼遊戲

because he won the game, whatever their game was, um, and he took her home

他把她帶回家，完全不知道怎麼養這隻蛇

and having no knowledge on how to care for snakes, he put her, shh, he put her in his sink.

他把她放在水槽裡，就像是你在洗碗的地方

Like, you know where you wash your dishes, in a sink. And he covered the sink, because he didn't want her to escape,

然後他把水槽蓋起來，因為不想讓她逃走

he covered the sink with this heavy atlas, at least that's what I was told, a heavy atlas, big book thing

他把水槽用一個很重很大的像是書的東西蓋著

to - so that she wouldn't escape, um, that's why she stayed for a couple of days, then he was like,

讓她沒辦法逃走

"Hmm, maybe I might have to feed her, or she might need something, so I should probably find her a home."

那就是她待了好幾天的地方。接著他才想到，也許我應該要餵她，或她需要一些東西，或許我該幫她找個家

So this guy managed to track down someone who actually kept snakes, called him and said,

所以這個男人想辦法找到有養蛇的人，打給他然後說:我贏了一條蛇，我不知道她需要什麼，你可以來把她帶走嗎?

"Look, I have won this snake, I don't know what it needs, do you think that you can come and - and pick it up?"

這時我的朋友介入了，帶走她，這時她的狀況很差

So, that's when my friend went over and picked her up and said that she was just in the worst state.

我有Kaa小時候非常瘦小的照片，在她剛到我家的時候

I have pictures of how tiny Kaa was when she first came to me, um,

我把照片放在這個角落。這個就是Kaa在我這裡開始幾週的樣子

I'm gonna try and insert them down here somewhere.

也許不是第一天的樣子，但是是一開始幾天，她非常瘦弱，骨瘦如材

So, this that you're looking at would be Kaa, initially, in the first couple of weeks, probably not the first day,

她身上附帶許多小小的蛇蝨

but the first couple of weeks that I had her home, she was skin and bone.

如果你對蛇沒有很了解，蛇蝨對很多繁殖者(尤其是在美國賣了很多蛇的)造成極大的困擾

And she was covered in these little snake mites, um, if you don't know what - about snakes,

這些小小的蛇蝨爬滿整隻蛇，尤其是在眼睛周圍

like, little snake mites, they plague a lot of big breeders, especially out in the states,

如果這些蛇有頰窩(感熱的孔狀構造)，這些蛇蝨會爬進去一點一點的咬並吸血

um, who sell a lot of snakes. They're these tiny little mites, which actually crawl all over snakes,

這是很不好的寄生現象，可能會把你的蛇殺死!而且非常難以治療

especially around their eyes, if they've got heat pits, like what Kaa has,

她被蛇蝨爬滿全身

um, which is like heat detection pits, they go in there and just nibble and suck blood,

她脫皮不順而且不願進食

and if there's a really bad infestation, it can kill your snake, and they're so hard to get rid of so she was covered in snake mites.

如果有人養球蟒的話，會知道牠們是惡名昭彰的挑食

She had stuck shed and she would not eat.

那是一個不好的回憶，當Kaa一開始來到我這時，我非常害怕她會死掉

Now, anybody who keeps royal pythons or ball pythons knows that these guys are notoriously picky eaters.

我在11年前的9月份得到她的

It was just not a good time.

她直到隔年的7月都沒有進食

When Kaa first came to me, I was scared to death that she was gonna die.

所以9~7月總共10個月她沒有進食

I got her in September eleven years ago, she did not eat until July the next year.

而且我不知道她在來我這之前有多久沒有吃東西了

So, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, that is ten months that she didn't eat!

她不是剛敷出來的，而且她很年輕，所以她一定在某時候吃過食物，我不曉得

And I don't know how long she went without food before coming to me.

我一開始也不知道她的性別，以她很小的體型我以為她是公的

Like, who knows if she had food? She wasn't a hatchling, she was still young, so she must have had food at some point

然後我用探針測試她的性別，原來她是女生

but, I just don't know, um, I also didn't know if she was a male or a female.

身為一個雌性球蟒她的體型是非常非常小的

Judging by her size, I thought she was male because she was so small

這是一隻正常健康球蟒成長1年半左右就可以達到的大小

and then when I probed her, it turns out that she's actually female, um, and she is so small for a female royal or ball python,

不是一隻11年的球蟒該有的大小，她非常的袖珍，不過沒關係，我們愛妳

like, she is very, very stunted. This is the size that a healthy ball python should be after like a year and a half or so, not eleven years old,

從她開始進食到成長成一定大小後，她變成我的動物大使

she is so titchy and small, but we love you it's okay.

她會跟著我到學校

Since she started eating and gaining weight and some size, she has become one of my animal ambassadors,

我們會導覽怎麼照顧異國寵物，怎麼照顧你們的蛇

so she would come with me into schools, and we would give talks on exotic pet care and how to look after your snakes and she is so gentle,

她非常的乖巧，她已經見過上百個人了

she has met literally hundreds of people.

她也是個蛇模特兒

She's even a snake model, so she's done a bit of modeling for various magazines, um,

她是幾個雜誌的模特兒

I do have a really great shot of her, but I have to blur out my previous company's, um, watermark.

我有一張她非常不錯的相片，但我需要把我之前公司的浮水印蓋掉

(camera shutters)

她現在爬到我的脖子，並不是想把我殺掉，而是我的脖子很暖活

She's now wrapping around my neck, not to kill me or anything, but because my neck is warm and - Yeah, hello!

這些傢伙很喜歡暖活

And these guys love the warm.

牠們需要特定的溫度來保持體溫並維持健康，所以牠們會尋找溫暖的地方

They need very specific temperatures in order to thermoregulate, to be healthy, um, so she loves to

妳要去哪兒，小香腸。小笨蛋，回來!

seek out the warmth. Where are you going, sausage?

你們有看到她的小舌頭忽隱忽現嘛?牠們有分叉的舌頭

You're such a banana, come back.

牠們利用分叉的舌頭來感測空氣

You see that little tongue flicker she's doing?

配合牠們的頰窩和眼睛

Snakes have this forked tongue and what they're doing with that forked tongue is they're kind of tasting the air

有點像是幫助牠們建構周圍立體的樣子

and along with their heat pits and their eyes, that's kind of how they build a 3D picture of what is around them.

牠們可以感受到熱、移動、震動

They can detect heat, uh, movement, um, vibrations, so that's what she's doing,

這就是她在做的事，她不是在生氣，事實上她在感受空氣，了解周圍

she's not being rude, she's literally tasting and smelling the air to get a better idea of her surroundings.

找到我了嗎?

Have you found me?

我的呼氣怎麼樣?

How's my breath? (exhale)

我的腳麻了

(laughing)

老實說，我覺得現在的球蟒很可憐

Oh my god, my feet are going to sleep! (groan)

因為當牠們是這種"普通"的顏色(野外正常的顏色)

Honestly, I feel really bad for royal and ball pythons right now, because when they're this color, their sort of "normal" color,

牠們變得不受歡迎，因為現在很多人著魔於爬蟲界所稱的"變異"(morphs)

which is like the wild color that you would find, um, they are not as popular, now, because everyone is so obsessed

正因如此，這些蛇快速貶值剛孵化的小蛇只要20元美金就可以買到

with, what we call in the hobby and the reptile community, "morphs".

我可以感謝這點，但我討厭為了製造新的變異的陋習，我知道很多人會買非常多動物來讓牠一直生一直生

And, because of that, the value of these guys has plummeted to the point where you can pick them up for like $20 as hatchlings.

去得到另一個很棒的新產物

I can appreciate them, but I don't like the ugliness that comes with creating morphs.

對我來說，Kaa的價值在她的溫馴和她的故事

I know so many people who just buy so many animals and they just breed and breed and breed them to get to the next great paint job.

她戰勝了非常恐怖的狀況

To me, the value of Kaa is her gentle nature, her story, the fact that she has made it through something so horrific

不管她的顏色是什麼，她到了學校

and that she, no matter what her color is, does go into schools and she inspires people, she helps people to

她鼓舞了人們，她幫助人們脫離他們的恐懼

get over their phobias. That to me is worth more than any color that you could breed in or out of her.

這對我來說比任何你們能夠繁殖出來的顏色還更有價值

Thank you all so much for watching my video, um, if you keep your own snakes, whatever they are, whether that are morphs,

感謝你們觀看我的影片

or if they are pythons, or boas, or anything else, let me know in the comments down below what you have.

如果你們有養蛇，不管是什麼種類，可以在下面留言給我

If you would like to keep any snakes, what your favorite snakes are, whether you don't like snakes,

你們有什麼?如果你想要養蛇。或者是你最喜歡的蛇是什麼?或者你不喜歡蛇

let's just have a snakey conversation!

讓我們來一場有關蛇的對話吧。嘶~~額~~~蛇的對話

Or a sssssnakey converssssssation.

如果你還沒訂閱，麻煩你，加入動物團體(#creaturecrew)

Ugh.

另外，你也可以到我的IG和snapchat，我在每個平台幾乎每天都會更新

If you haven't subscribed, please do, join the creature crew!

這些是很棒的地方能讓你忘記世界上的不愉快

Also, you can come and find me over on my Instagram, my chat - my - my Chatsnap? My Snapchat and my Instagram!

感謝各位觀看，我們很快會在另一部影片再見!掰掰!

I post pretty much daily on every platform, it's just a really, really good place to just forget about the woes of the world.

Thank you so much for watching, and we will catch you in another video soon! Bye!