Posted on 09/16/2003 9:00:42 AM PDT by presidio9
Today's lesson is: What goes around, comes around. And sometimes it comes with two heads.
Robert Shapiro, owner of an East Village T-shirt shop, can attest to this. When not devising morally upright T-shirts - "No child is born a racist," "There's more to life than looking like a Gap ad," etc. - he spends his spare time rescuing unwanted reptiles. And this summer, one of them - a constrictor - gave birth to a bouncing baby boa.
With two heads.
It is the only known two-headed boa in the world, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"It's like a normal boa with a growth along its neck that happens to be a head," says Shapiro, 46, opening the takeout coffee cup in which he keeps baby Indy, who was born on July 4, along with 27 single-headed siblings.
Though boas are illegal in the city, Shapiro had brought her in from his reptile rehab facility on Long Island for her first date with the media. "Isn't she beautiful?" he asked.
Let's just say she's a lot cuter than the tortoises in his window and especially the lizard on his basement floor - supposedly slow and blind - that lunged at my toes.
"He's fine as long as you don't put your foot in front of him," Shapiro mentions as an afterthought. Hmph.
Social Tees, his shoebox-sized shop, is filled with rescued animals like this. Most he adopts out. But he'll sell a few of the fanciest to help finance his rescue operations.
Indy is, of course, at the top of the list. In a few months, when she's old enough to be adopted safely, Shapiro will sell her to the highest responsible bidder.
Already, word of Indy's hissssstoric appearance is spreading through the reptile world. Buyers have called from Asia and Israel. They are even more intrigued when they learn that Indy is odd, even by only-creature-on-Earth standards.
One swallows, other doesn't
While her main head functions normally, her auxiliary noggin is just too weird. The eyes move and its tongue flicks, indicating it has its own brain.
But unlike other "normal" two-headed snakes - and there have been a few in smaller breeds, like the king snake - Indy's second head doesn't have a throat.
Head No. 2 is basically kept alive by Head No. 1, the same way your own arms are kept alive by the air and food your head takes in.
"I've been around the block," says Bronx Zoo herpetologist Frank Indiviglio, who has visited Indy. "There are millions of snakes out there. But this is the only one [like this] I've ever seen."
Indy's existence is shocking, yes. But maybe not so surprising. When you live a life like Shapiro's - teaching tolerance and rescuing the reviled - karma sometimes comes curled in a coffee cup, looking up with four twinkling eyes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.