Introducing: Zoe the Ball Python... eating her dinner! (If you don't want to see a snake eating a rat, keep scrolling!)

I'd like to introduce one of our family pets to you all:

Zoe the Ball Python

We, as a family, have quite a few pets. Zoe is exclusively mine. I have wanted a ball python as a pet since I was a child. Well, earlier this year, I saw an ad for a snake that needed removed. Apparently someone moved out of a house, leaving behind their pet ball python, who they said they would return to collect. They never came back.
The new residents were deathly afraid of snakes, but had compassion on this poor thing that was not getting fed or cared for. (They did give her some water, but just by pouring in through the top of the tank, so as not to put their hands inside.

I came out to their house to check out the situation. It was sad.
She had several layers of stuck shed due to no humidity. She was severely malnourished and dehydrated.
If you ran a hand down her back, you could feel all the ribs and backbone... It was bad.
The bedding she was in was DISGUSTING. More poop than bedding in there, and it STUNK.

The people were apologetic about her condition, and accepted the low offer of a rehome fee I offered.
This is a picture of after I brought her home and changed the bedding. You can see the poor shape she was in.

Poor her.

Well, fast forward several months. She has grown, she has shed several times and is glossy and healthy looking, and she has finally put on the weight she needed!
The first picture above was from a couple of months ago. She is even better looking now.

Anyway, the other day I fed her, and instead of hiding away to eat her meal, she ate it right there in the open where everyone could see. I took pictures and thought I would share for people who might be interested. It is amazing how much they can stretch to eat a large prey item!
Some of the photos are slightly out of focus, but here you go:

You can see my kids' reflections in the glass in this picture. They love to watch her eat!

She was pretty much done at this point. After swallowing, and yawning to get her jaws back into place, she cruised on over to her water dish to get a drink.

So that about sums up Zoe!
I am so glad to have adopted her, and will take good care of her the rest of her days. No more starving for her. :)
She happily scarfs down one frozen/thawed rat a week, and sheds like a champ now.

(For anyone who sees the aspen bedding, I do realize this is not ideal bedding. There was an accident that made her old bedding unsafe, and the only thing I had at the time was a bag of aspen. It has since been replaced with a more suitable substrate for her.)

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed!