When most people hear a pet’s name is “Precious,” they probably don’t envision something that sheds its skin and eats live mice.
Obviously, those people have never visited Teacher Barbara Johnston’s fourth-grade class at Oxford Elementary School.
Residing in the back of Johnston’s classroom is her “Precious,” a 2-year-old, female Ball Python.
Measuring four feet long with a girth of about two inches, Precious is a captive-bred constricting snake from Africa. (To learn more about this snake see the box below.)
“The kids really love her,” Johnston said. “ At first, they’re scared, but once they get to know the animal and hold it, they find out it’s not as creepy as they think.”
Johnston bought Precious from a pet store at Great Lakes Crossing two years ago after attending a science camp where she met a teacher who brought his python with him.
“I just thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” she said. “I’m not really a snake person, but for some reason I really liked this snake a lot.”
Johnston purchased Precious to be a classroom pet.
“It’s such a low maintenance pet, it’s really perfect for a teacher,” she said.
Once a week, the snake is fed one live mouse, which Johnston breeds at home, and its cage is cleaned.
Precious’ presence in the classroom has been a positive learning experience for the children, the teacher said.
“Sometimes she inspires children to learn more about snakes,” Johnston said. “I had a couple of kids do research projects on snakes because she was around.”
“I think kids should he exposed (to things like this) and have that hands-on science experience,” she added.
Johnston’s pupils are allowed to touch and hold Precious, but only if they want to.
“I always tell the kids I’ll never force them to do anything they don’t want to do,” she said.
Johnston said parents don’t have to fear their children getting bitten because Precious doesn’t bite people, only mice.
“She has small teeth to hold prey and keep it from escaping her mouth,” Johnston said. “It’s nothing that could hurt us.”
By now readers are probably wondering how a Ball Python got the name Precious.
Johnston explained that on the way home from the pet store, the young snake (then about a foot long) kept escaping her box, so she coiled it around her arm while she was driving.
As she was driving, Johnston kept talking to the snake saying, “Oh, you’re so sweet. You’re so precious.”
It immediately struck Johnston that “precious” sounded like a good name for her new pet.
“It’s a name you wouldn’t expect a snake to be called,” she said. “It’s like when people have a Chihuahua and they call it Duke or Spike. I wanted to allay the kids’ fear.”