Framed Snake Photo

When Joyce brought in this photo of herself wrapped up in snake, we just had to hear the story. The snake–Julius Squeezer–a Burmese python was a treasured friend for 14 years. When she picked up her order, Joyce brought along his skin and told us a few stories. Listen to the video to hear why she did not allow dogs to roam freely in her home!

Here is the transcript of the Video:

Tami: All right. I think this is the first time that we have had a full Burmese Python snakeskin in the store. There is the picture that we framed of our customer. And what’s his name?

Joyce: Julius squeezer. Squeezy for short.

Tami: Oh gosh. And you got him when he was what, a foot long?

Joyce: A foot long, just a snakelet, and he grew to 14 feet and was 140 pounds.

Tami: How long did you have him?

Joyce: Oh, I had him 14 years.

Tami: Oh, wow.

Joyce: He like grew a foot a year.

Tami: That’s a long time.

Joyce: Yeah. Yeah.

Tami: What a story.

Joyce: He used to know how to open up his cage. I’d come home and he wouldn’t be in his cage. So it was like, where is he? I had to look around. Where is he?

Tami: I take it, you can’t keep a dog in the house then?

Joyce: Oh, no. A friend of mine brought his dog over one time, it was winter, and it was about a 40 pound dog. And I said, “You can’t bring him in here.” And he goes, “Why?” I said, “Because my snakes loose.” He says, “Well, get your snake.” I says, “No, my snake lives here. You’re dog doesn’t.” He said, “Well, it’s too cold to have him outside.” And we had a huge, huge cage. I said, “Well, put your dog in the cage.” I wasn’t going to put… He was all wrapped around in the radiator. They like the heat. He was all wrapped around the radiator. And if he didn’t want to come out, he would hiss and it’s like, “Okay, not doing that.” So I said, “You got two choices. Leave, put your dog in the cage. That’s it.”

Tami: Tell me about the photo.

Joyce: Oh, the photo was a friend of mine, who was a professional photographer, saw the snake and he said, “Oh my gosh.” He says, “We have to do something with that.” You should have seen all the other little shots. You know, they have all these shots and they pick one. I had him, he was crawling around my head, like a big bonnet. And he was just crawling around everywhere, and he just kept snapping pictures. And then he had it. He did a show-

Tami: It’s a great photo.

Joyce: He did a show. He was invited to do a photography show with some other photographers, and he put this up and he put the other one up. And the people that were running the show came up to him and said, “Take that picture down. We don’t like that picture.” He said, “Really?” He says, “You invited me as an artist.” He says, “And this is my art.” And he says, “I’ll tell you what,” he says, “I’ll take the snake down.” He said, “I’m taking everything else down and I’m leaving.” “You can’t leave, you’re the main guy.” He says, “Well, then let me do what I’m going to do.”

Tami: So it stayed up, huh?

Joyce: Oh, it stayed up. Yeah.

Tami: Yeah?

Joyce: I don’t know if he’s even still around. But this photo, he was half his size, that he is now.

Tami: Wow.

Joyce: You can see how my hand… You know?

Tami: Yup.

Joyce: Yeah.

Tami: Yeah. We really liked it. It’s too bad the other photo has already gone home.

Joyce: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Tami: Yeah.

Joyce: And that’s how they hang on to you. And it was like getting away, and that’s why I was doing that. Because he was like, “Oh my God.” And it’s like snap, snap, snap, snap, snap.

Tami: Really super basic frame job, but it looks nice. That’s what you wanted.

Joyce: Yeah. I love it.

Tami: Just really basic.

Joyce: I love it.

Tami: And go from there. Well, thank you so much for letting me do the video.

Joyce: Oh, no problem.
Tami: Tami with Frame Minnesota in Eagan, where we frame just about anything.

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