07/14/2025
Making a post like this is never something we wanted to do, but working with animals it is naturally part of the job. We believe in transparency, and wanted to share this news with our community.
On Sunday, June 29th, Bo our Boa Constrictor (BCI) passed away. Our team has been utterly torn apart by his passing, and to say tears have been shed would be an understatement. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t writing this through tears of my own. Please excuse the delay to collect ourselves before posting.
For those of you who haven’t met him, this is Bo’s Story:
Bo was one of the first snakes ever surrendered to the sanctuary, long before we had a public location. For a long time, he was the longest snake we worked with. However, Bo’s intake was also one of hardest, even to this day.
Bo came to us after sustaining heavy injuries as the result of being left unattended for a week with a large rat. When he first arrived, he still moved around very slowly, and showed he had a lot of fight left in him, despite his injuries and subsequent infections in the weeks leading up to his surrender.
Upon arrival, Bo had bites down his body, a good chunk of his tail missing, and many injuries on his face, presumably from attempting to escape. In addition to these bites, he had mouth rot, a very severe respiratory infection, and on top of it all, an inability to eat solid food due to his injuries.
It took about a year before Bo got back to “normal”, eating and shedding on his own. One year of tube feedings, shots, creams and disinfectants, lots of baths (even brushing his teeth!), and most of all, a ton of love. Since then, Bo had slowly began to heal his nose back, and toward the end of his life, you could barely see his cleft lip at all.
While we knew Bo would never live a “normal” life, we never knew the impact that Bo would have on us and those we had the pleasure of sharing his story with.
Working with rescues, we never truly have any idea of how long we will get to work with an animal. Underlying injuries, shortened lifespans due to their past, and never truly knowing their age in the first place as nature of the surrender process make it extremely difficult. Despite this, nothing can ever prepare you for the loss of an animal you care so deeply for, have nursed for years, and have watched grow and thrive.
Through it all, we are so thankful for the opportunity to have gotten to work with Bo and share his journey with all of you. Over the years we’ve had him, never have I seen another snake touch the hearts of so many. We can’t thank our community enough for supporting us and our animals. You make stories like Bo’s possible.
If you have any pictures or stories of Bo, we’d love if you shared them in the comments so we can all celebrate his memory.
