Oh the torture. I took my kid to the pet shop today to get food for her rats. It has been SO many years sense I worked these stores and the hobby in general that I didn't think it would be a problem for me. Boy was I wrong. The guy behind the counter was inspecting a blood python that was very nicely colored, I mentioned as much and he asked if I had any experience with them. BANG it all came back to me in a flash. along with the addiction I had for reptiles. Oh man. I felt like a 2 week clean smoker with a carton of smokes in hand... We got to talking and it turns out he was breeding the same snakes I was 20 years ago. We had so many common interests in reptiles that my daughter started pushing me out the door. Could have talked for another hour easy.

I was so shaken by this that I told her I couldn't take her there again anytime soon. I had to unwind and get myself straightened out. I was (at a glance) putting together a new habitat with what he had in stock and already had the figures worked up on time and cost of maintenance. yikes.

Lucky I really had no urge to buy anything at the time as what I'm interested in is local and readily available, Fence Lizards. I know that after I move I'll be hard pressed to NOT set up something. Seems that alot of my time and work from the old days have been picked up along the way and are readily available. Many different bugs are just a call away for a varied diet and all the lighting and heating issues of the past can now be controlled with ease. Oh ya I'm in SOOOO much trouble.

At one time or another I have had just about every fresh water fish and reptile in the pet industry. I had 3 jobs to support my addiction. As I got older the drive and interest didn't (still hasn’t) diminished much but I'm wiser and have a bit more self control. For years a camera has satisfied my urge of collecting reptiles. I have TONS of pics that I look through. Now I will not get anything unless I can support it's every need. That didn't always happen in the past. Many of the ones I had where not even in the market, they came in shipments of other critters and got mixed in. Some I could easily ID others took years to figure out what they where. Some where unfortunately so far gone from shipping that I could do nothing for them. As the years went by I could no longer face those "downs" and got out of the Hobby all together. Even had to stop working pet shops as I could not sell what the shop wanted me to sell. I had moved to far away from the industry and it was getting to me.

Wow that was a bit of a mental download

Any others have something like that?