Snake at the party

 Breakfast with Sidharth and Nikhil the other day turned out to be a testing time for me.   I  found them  test me on  corn snake.  ‘Do you know why they call it a corn snake ?’, asked Nikhil as he was mid-way through his morning cup of yogurt.  Snakes and spider are not the kind of things we usually discuss  at breakfast  table.  But then Nikhil, and brother Sidharth had been to a birthday party the previous day , at which  some wild creatures from Oakland Zoo   - snake, spider, lizard and the like – were among the special invitees. It was their friend Akshay’s birthday. And  the seven-year-old is said to have flair for  wildlife.  And his parents had the  small animals to the party. 
Sidharth and Nikhil said they  even touched  the snake.  The  zoo staffer, who brought the small animals to the birthday party  ran a minor workshop on corn snake for the  children.  Sidharth and Nikhil came away from the party, fairly knowledgeable about lizards, spider and  corn snake.

 The lady from Oakland Zoo is seen taking the caged animals out the car at  Akshay’s residence in Danvile C A.
At our breakfast table the next morning  Sidharth held forth on  corn  snakes ;  said they are so called because they  sneak  into corn fields  to prey on mice.  Corn snake is a friend of the farmer because  mice  cause damage to his corn.  And a snake can smell mice from afar, though it can’t see them . Snakes have poor eye-sight, says Sidharth.  When I chipped in with the suggestion that they could wear glasses, Nikhil  laughed  at me. His point was  you can’t fit  eye-glasses   on a  snake that doesn’t have ears. Both brothers ruled out contact lens. As Sidharth  put it,  snakes were not designed  to have proper vision. So eye-glasses or contact lens wouldn't help.
 Oakland Zoo, under their education programme, sends on request a select  few small animals to educate and entertain children at  birthday parties. Akshay’s  father  had  filed an application in priscribed  format to the zoo authorities to have the animals over at their Danvile C A  residence for the brithday party.
 Under Zoo Mobile scheme, the birthday child (ages four and older) and their friends will meet four small animals, most of which can be touched. The birthday child will receive a Zoo gift to mark the occasion. A ZooMobile party is fun, educational and entertaining. The zoo makes available zoo animals only for birthday parties  for children turning 4 and older.   Pets must be kept in a separate room. Children under 3 are not permitted to touch the animals.