The Life and Viral Fame of Virginia’s Two-Headed Snake

by Laura Mallonee, wired.com
June 13, 2019 04:53 PM

to stress the animal, since snakes can’t process cortisol very well. Getting a shot with both tongues out at once took patience; Frost would blow a bit of warm air out of his mouth, and the snake would sense the heat through its pits and hiss. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, one tongue would come out before the other,” Frost says.Trevor FrostPhoto by: Trevor Frost

Late last summer in Woodbridge, Virginia, a woman wandered into her yard and found an eastern copperhead slithering through her flower bed. That’s not so unusual where she lives, as the region is home to a plethora of ophidians, from harmless corn snakes to venomous rattlers. But this one was different: It had two heads.

It’s called dicephaly, a mysterious disorder occurring in just one out of every 100,000 snakes born in the wild and one out of 10,000 born in captivity. Affected snakes possess two brains with distinct personalities, though one head typically dominates the other, which might lack a trachea, esophagus, or even eyes. Scientists suspect it happens when an embryo in the early stages of development divides—possibly induced by sudden temperature changes, environmental pollution, or inbreeding. Whatever the cause, these unlucky creatures don’t live long. Nearly half are dead on arrival, and few survive beyond the first few months.

The Woodbridge serpent—er, serpents?—were at most three weeks old, no longer than a Penguin paperback, but it (they?) caused a stir. Naturally, pictures made their way onto Facebook, then inevitably CNN, The New York Daily News, and even Snapchat. Calls began flooding the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries—which removed the critter from the woman’s property—from people curious to see it up close and zoos eager to take it off their hands.

“After about 48 hours of that madness, I was like, I’m done,” says state herpetologist John D. Kleopfer. “I don’t know how these celebrities, like the Kardashians, live.”

Kloepher enlisted the help of Cooper Sallade, a respected viper breeder in Richmond, who agreed to raise the bifurcated snake on a strictly confidential basis. Sallade, 27, has been handling ophidians since childhood, when he’d catch them outside and keep them in jars under his bed. Now he has a nondescript warehouse full of them. He keeps up to 300 at any given time locked away in temperature-regulated containers on PVC rack systems that appear, at a glance, like filing cabinets.

“Reptiles are actually not my favorite animals,” Sallade says. “I prefer birds and large mammals, but you can’t keep a whole house full of bears.”

‘After about 48 hours of that madness, I was like, I’m done. I don’t know how these celebrities, like the Kardashians, live.’

Herpetologist John D. Kleopfer

At the Game and Fisheries’ office outside Richmond, Sallade coaxed the copperhead into a Rubbermaid food container with air holes drilled into the sides, placed that into a wooden box labeled “venomous snake,” screwed it shut, then drove it to his facility. For the next two and a half months, he quarantined it in a special room with a separate HVAC system to stop the spread of any possible pathogens to his other reptiles. The snake didn’t move much or eat. So once a week, Sallade force fed it a euthanized baby mouse, gently pinning down both heads with a foam hobby brush while using tweezers to slowly massage the rodent into the less developed head, which happened to have the most developed gullet and windpipe. Soon it was regularly defecating and shedding its skin. Sallade felt hopeful.

“Since the snake had such an incomprehensible amount of media attention, there was a lot of pressure on me to keep that thing alive,” he says.

But alas, one December morning, Sallade went in to check on it and found the snake had died. He was sad, but not exactly surprised. “If it had been a snake that was born in my collection, I wouldn’t have told anybody about it,” he says. “Honestly, I would probably have euthanized it myself, because it was so hard for the snake, just being alive.”

Which raises a slightly awkward question: Would it have been better—maybe even kinder—to do so? According to Dr. Van Wallach, a herpetologist who plans to dissect the Woodbridge snake (his 19th such dissection), it’s actually easier to dissect and study younger snakes than older ones, since there isn’t so much fat obscuring the organs. But for Wallach, that doesn’t negate the value of preserving its life. “All forms of life deserve respect and the right to live,” Wallach says.

Wallach himself once had a two-headed milk snake that he affectionately dubbed “Brady & Belichick” after the New England Patriots football team quarterback and coach. During a meal, Belichick—the more dominant and coordinated of the duo—would scarf a mouse down, then reach over and snatch Brady’s partially swallowed one too. “Neither head realized that all the food went to the same stomach!” Wallach says. It lived for seven years and brought him more joy than any other pet snake he’s ever had—at least, twice as much.

Authors note: sorry I couldn’t fix the photo in the post of the 2 headed snake.

The art of cliffhangers

It is an undeniable truth: a reader’s emotions are at the mercy of the author.

And a cliffhanger is a pretty infallible way to pull strong emotional reactions from readers. We’ve all run into a cliffhanger: an abrupt ending or a thrilling plot twist during a moment of elevated drama, introduced to maintain suspense.

Cliffhanger-induced emotions range from elated anticipation for the next installment of the story, to pleasant introspection on subtext, frustration for the prolonged suffering of a character, and even blind rage at a cruelly timed cutoff.

Any of the above reactions could be part of a writer’s devious plan to entertain readers. It’s a strong literary device when well written. But unless it serves some vital purpose, anger should not be the emotional goal for writers.

Endings, regardless of closure, often stay foremost on our minds when recalling a finished book, so it’s important to leave readers with a good impression. Cliffhangers need to be employed wisely and craftily.

Done well, cliffhangers are a great strategy to keep readers engaged, quickly turning to the start of a new chapter. They’re also a strong marketing tactic, driving readers to purchase the next installment of a series. A great cliffhanger leaves the reader excited, anxious, even desperately craving, to know what happens next. Most of the time, it works in the author’s favor, like those on this list.

Done poorly, it leaves readers unfulfilled and with too many unanswered questions: Did the author intend to do that? Did I miss something? Am I supposed to draw my own conclusions? Why would that character do such thing? Or—most commonly asked, especially after chucking said book with bad cliffhanger at the nearest wall—that’s it? Why would this author play so callously with my emotions this way?

For a book ending on a cliffhanger, yes, it does play with readers’ emotions in the last few pages. That’s simply the nature of the beast. However, it also needs to respect the first 300-or-so pages that have built up to this thrilling ending. Why follow the characters through all the ups and downs, page after page when we don’t receive a reward?

Readers don’t appreciate feeling frustrated and dissatisfied. They want to know all the work they’ve put into reading your book was worthwhile.

A cliffhanger employed in a series can be appropriately timed and reveal just enough new information to tease the next book, while still tying up each individual installment. The key is to thoroughly strategize an overarching plot line to connect all of the books, while developing a self-contained plot in each installment. That way, you leave the reader with enough answers to have a [mostly] complete and satisfactory ending with each book.

Using cliffhangers at the end of a chapter is also a stellar technique—they are page-turners. Ending the chapter by sending your character to bed is fine if it the closing of the scene calls for it—but let’s face it, it doesn’t drive your reader to the next chapter.

Cliffhangers lead readers to the next chapter and call up that infamous internal promise to read “just one more chapter” before they go to bed. Chapter cliffhangers need to be used sparingly, though. Consistent abrupt endings only leave readers exhausted; readers still feel smaller cycles of anticipation and closure throughout the novel.

Bottom line: writers need to ask themselves if their story is being fair to their readers.

Sloppy writing, easy outs, vague story endings, and cheap selling tactics do not make the cut or readers’ approval. Be sure to tie up as many loose ends as possible and give readers some sense of fulfillment and closure. Otherwise you risk losing your readership.

How do you define a good cliffhanger? Read any lately that left you happy or frustrated?

Location:Tennyson Dr,Lancaster,United States

Story #2

Here is my second installation of my book, as mentioned before this is an unedited draft. Please read and let me know what you think, thanks for reading.

Now trying to plan every kind of scenario, that would and could happen at the Inner Harbor, and not exactly knowing what they were dealing with. The only idea that Chris had was that if anything was to happen and they either one of them. That Melissa was going to have a recording of the conversation between the two of them, for both of them to listen to later. Cause really this is Chris, and Melissa’s lives that are in danger here, mostly Melissa’s and her daughters. But Chris wouldn’t know what to do with himself if anything was to happen to Melissa, or her daughter. So after hours, and hours of preparation they believed that they were ready for this. For Chris this was very hard for him not to let Melissa know of anything that had happened to him previously to him. So the day had arrived for Chris and Melissa to go to the Inner Harbor to meet this mysterious stranger at the Inner Harbor. So Chris had splitted up from Melissa. Before Chris had left Melissa he gave her a very passionate kiss, and hoping that this was not the last one for either one of them. So they had splitted up, Chris had ran quickly across the street to the hotel, and to get a good seat for everything to happen. So while Chris was trying to find a spot to see everything from the hotel window from the highest floor that was in the hotel with the best view of the Inner Harbor. Now at this time the scene was a warm September weekend. The Inner Harbor was pretty busy with both of stadiums (Orioles Park at Candem Yards, Ravens stadium Aka M & T Bank stadium) both stadiums that day both the Baltimore Orioles, and the Baltimore Ravens were getting ready to play. The Orioles were goin to play at 2:00 that afternoon, and the ravens later on that at evening around 7:00  or so. But either way the whole area around the Inner Harbor was very busy. People coming and goin throughout the day in this hotel. So it was very busy for Chris to get up to the area where he was goin to be watching over Melissa. With all that going on Chris finally did reach his destination within the hotel. And as he feared, by the time that he had reached the floor, and the window. She was gone, scared to death Chris had ran through the hotel trying to get out as fast as he could. He finally gets out frantic, frightened, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. So he stands in place for a moment, to look around and see that he didn’t overlook anything. After 3 to 4 hours of looking and finally losing hope that she was nowhere to be found in the Inner Harbor. Now with Chris is feeling a lot of emotions right now, and again doesn’t know what to do with himself. He feels like he is paralyzed, and can’t move at all. So after a while of going through all these emotions he felt like it was all his fault. Mostly by not letting Melissa know what she was walking into. So after coming to his senses some what. He had called Erica (Melissa’s best friend in college) to see where was Jennifer (Melissa’s Daughter). Chris had found out from Erica that Jennifer had went on a  trip to Melissa’s mother’s house. And would be staying there for a while, not knowing that Melissa had sent Jennifer to her mother’s house, not knowing what was going to happen at The Inner Harbor today. So Chris had a sie of relief that Jennifer was temporarily out of danger. But also knows that before to long no one would be able to run away from this at all. So after going home and drinking himself to sleep. Chris had a very malicious dream about him trying to save Melissa and failing and losing her forever. So after waking soaked from it, he had to jump in the shower to get himself cleaned up. But he also knows that now he can’t be alone anymore cause he is then he wouldn’t know what he would do. So he calls his boy John (John Swoo, best friend from high school, and college) and John had asked Chris if he wanted to go with himself, and Kelly (John’s sister) to their family’s house for a family dinner. So knowing that he wanted to be around people that he knows, and friendly people at that.  John had went to dinner at John’s parents house. At the house were John’s parents: Thomas, Elle Swoo. They had always loved Chris, they had considered as a great friend to John, and Kelly.

Story #1

Hello everyone,

Here is my first insert of my story telling concept of this blog, please enjoy reading and let me know what your opinions are, and your feedback is welcome.

Story #1

A man by the name of Chris who has  a private life, lives alone in his Baltimore City row home.

A man by the name of Chris who has a private life, lives alone in his Baltimore City row home.
Other than going to work, and occasionally going to out eat a couple blocks down from his home to the nearest chicken restaurant to get his chicken box that he usually orders. And on Friday’s when he gets paid he also goes across the street to the local corner liquor store to get himself a 40 oz of Bud Ice that he likes to drink. Other than these ordinary things that he does, he lives a pretty boring life. On one very odd day he receives a mysterious call, from someone he has never met before. This person asks him to meet him down the street at Rite Aid Pharmacy. The caller on the phone had mentioned that he had something to tell him, that would intrigue him. So Chris was pretty skeptic at first to do this but after a while of listening to the caller on the phone, he had told the caller that he would meet him there. Now since he works nights at a warehouse within 20 minutes away from his home. He had to really tell the caller that he had to get his sleep at a certain time of the day. So after a while of trying to make a good time to meet up with one another, they have agreed to a time that was suitable for both parties to meet up. Now after sleeping on this odd mysterious day that the caller had called him from out of the blue, Chris had went to the Rite Aid Pharmacy to meet this gentlemen that he had spook to on the phone. Chris was still a little skeptic about meeting up with gentleman, so after getting to Rite Aid he had went inside just looking around for the hell of it. So after walking around endlessly looking at a bunch of stuff. Then he had seen this mysteriously looking person, he could have easily been mistaken for a bum on the street. That you will see on every street corner begging for money or food, or whatever that they need at the time. So Chris was wondering to himself if this could be the person that called him earlier in the week. So Chris tried not to look to suspicious, he had started going from aisle to aisle following this mysterious person. And for every aisle that he was going to he was trying to find out if this person was a male, or a female he couldn’t tell. So after a while of this going on, Chris had a sudden urge to go take a leak in the bathroom. So after going taking a piss in the bathroom, Chris comes out and what do you know there is the mysterious person sitting in a chair in front of the pharmacist counter. Chris notices this and then walks toward the front of the store. And then Chris realizes that the tables had turned on him now, so instead of Chris following the mysterious person, the mysterious person is now following Chris, right outside of the store. So now with nowhere to hide from one another they had started to speak to one another. So Chris finds out that the mysterious person is a woman, with a very strange scratchy type of voice. Also Chris had found out that this woman had lung cancer so bad to the point that it had altered her voice. The mysterious woman talks with her hands a lot to void speaking as much as possible. While making jesters showing him that she was not there to hurt him in any way. Now during this conversation that Chris was having with this mysterious woman he had noticed that she had a letter hidden within her hoody with a picture inside of it. Now Chris lives on the westside of Baltimore City, and just recently Chris had met a woman they he had become very fond of with no question in his mind that he loves her very much but hasn’t expressed it her as of yet. And her name is Melissa, Melissa was a medical student at John Hopkins University of Medicine and she lived on the east side of Baltimore City. And she was a single parent to a 5-year-old little girl. Now while at her home Melissa was having a very odd day herself. Now after getting off from school, and picking up her daughter up from school. She had came her home, got her daughter out the car, and she had opened up the front door, and her daughter had gotten the mail the mailbox, after getting herself and her daughter settled for the night by making dinner for them both, and making sure that she had helped her daughter with her homework. So after getting her daughter off to bed, Melissa finally had the chance to look at her mail from earlier. And then she got a disturbing letter in the mail. This letter didn’t have a name or anything from the sender.