Good morning from Anaheim, Calif., and the first day of the National Association of Reptile Breeders Conference!

I'll be keeping you posted throughout the weekend, but for now, here's a photo of Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry and me, in the blinding California sunshine.



I'll have more soon!

We're on the road again! I'm heading out to represent Kingsnake.com at the North American Reptiles Breeder's Conference in Anaheim, CA.

kingsnake.com will be covering NARBC live, just like we did Daytona last month. I'll be meeting up with Jeff Lemm from the San Diego Zoo as well as a pet author Liz Palika, who is very well known in dog land but also runs a reptile rescue from her home in California.

If you're there, look for me at set-up on Friday as well as at the show and auction over the rest of the weekend. Stop me and say hi!

Desiree Wong of the International Reptile Conservation Foundation and her sidekick, Xan, will also be helping with the online coverage.

You can follow us on the Kingsnake.com blog here.

We have a photo gallery made specifically for this show! Upload shots from the show while you're down there to share with everyone! You can find the NARBC Anaheim gallery here.

Be sure to "like" us on Facebook here -- we'll be updating there, too, as well as on Twitter, here.

Are you a regular Twitter user? We have started a hashtag for the event! Post from the show with #narbc to join in on the fun! Not familiar with how hashtags work? No problem! Check out this helpful link for more information.

Safe travels to all on their way to and from the show. If you see me, please stop and say hi! And don't be shocked if I ask for a photo with you!

Modern medicine isn't just for humans anymore. A Loggerhead Sea Turtle named J. George received a CT scan for free at Bon Secours Health Center to help learn why he couldnt dive.
From Pilot-Online:

"His caudal end is buoyant," said the stranding team's Christina Trapani, and Dr. George translated: "He floats with his rear end up like a crab pot marker."

Jersey George was found on a New Jersey beach Aug. 1, 2009. He had been hit by a boat propeller, resulting in three large cuts across his back and paralyzing his rear flippers.

The aquarium agreed to take him into rehab, and J. George has responded well over the past year. But periodically his rear end floats up, a problem for an air-breathing animal that must dive for food.

After 13 months of rehab, they are currently working to see if J.George will be able to be fixed and released. If he is unable to dive, he will need to remain in captivity.

The birth of rare crocodilians is a pretty exciting event, and St. Augustine Alligator Farm is having some nice rare events. TEarlier this week they had a Slender Snout Crocodile hatching, and then today they hatched the first of their Siamese Crocs. Great to see conservation in action at one of my favorite places to visit.

Now for TEH CUTES. The photo to the right is the baby hatchling Siamese Croc -- thanks to Kevin Torregrosa. The photo below is the baby Slender Snouted Croc. So very cute that they made Zooborns.

The folks in Eaton, Mich., love animals and they are taking steps to show even normal people can become extraordinary heroes.

Going above and beyond their normal daily lives, they are taking steps to ensure the wildlife affected by the oil spill gets cleaned up and a second chance. From the Lansing State Journal:

Then there's the woman known as the "Turtle Rehabber," Kay Frasher. Frasher, who works as a vet tech at the Holt Veterinarian Clinic, is licensed as an animal rehabilitator and specializes in turtles native to Michigan.

"Anytime we get turtles, they go to Kay," Sagaert said. Frasher says cleaning a turtle with Dawn liquid detergent, using cotton tipped swabs for the creases in its neck and legs, can take from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on how tarry it is. It's painstaking work that often involves a few bites, especially in the attempt to grab the turtle's head in order to clean its neck.

Frasher, though, isn't complaining. "I've really been amazed to see this come together in such a short time," she said of the large rescue site in Marshall. "I'm honored to have been called and to be here." There are countless examples of loving dedication every day at the rescue site.

To read the tales of all the rescuers, click here.

Several efforts are being launched to create refuges for the Eastern Indigo, one of the largest snakes in the United States.

First up, a congressman who gets it. For those keeping track for voting purposes, this is Congressman Jack Kingston of Savannah, GA. From the Island Packet:

The bespectacled Republican couldn't help but crack a joke about his search for the harmless indigo, one of the largest snakes in North America.

"They're so much more pleasant than the crowd in Washington," he told the TV station.
Kingston, rated by some as the most conservative member of Congress, looks like a typical guy with a wife, four children, two dogs and two cats. But what about those snakes?
"It's golf for one guy, fly fishing for somebody else, it's snakes for me," he told WMAZ.

What he was promoting and researching was Project Orianne, which is named after a little girl who loves Indigos; seriously how cool is that!

From the Orlando Sentinal:

Antonio said the Lake site provides an ideal arena for study and breeding the reptiles, allowing researchers to construct individual open-air enclosures that mirror the eastern indigo snake's natural habitat. He said the enclosures will keep the snakes in and black bear, foxes and other animals out.

"It's a species that needs to come back," said Commissioner Jennifer Hill, who studied the group's website, met with the property owners and read about the black reptile, a predator of rattlesnakes. "It's a very good snake."

The eastern indigo snake preys on frogs, lizards and small mammals but prefers to eat other snakes.

When kingsnake.com visited St. Augustine Alligator Farm, the last thing we expected was for the alligators to sing about our presence, but they did. Walking through their big pond area, we saw that the males were courting and establishing dominance. For the group of friends I was with, this was an amazing experience. My arms were covered in goosebumps from the noise. Walking above the animals, hearing the calls and feeling the bridge vibrate from those calls was one of the most beautiful things I have experienced.