Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- If you're looking for a last-minute Christmas present, consider avoiding Nekiza, the ill-tempered 6 1/2-foot Amazon tree boa.

For four months, Scott Rounds has been searching for a good home for his beloved reptile. But the snake's bad attitude has limited its appeal.

Nekiza's problem is he just doesn't seem to like people. He hisses. He spits. He strikes. He literally bites the hand that feeds him. Earlier this year, Nekiza put Rounds in a chokehold, lassoing the 31-year-old Palmer man's neck so tightly he couldn't swallow.

Rounds said he escaped by sticking his head into the snake's cage, eventually getting the boa to loosen the grip on his throat in favor of a branch.

"He is aggressive," Rounds said. "I don't believe in telling people he's a great snake."

Bad attitude aside, that doesn't mean Nekiza isn't worthy of some sympathy this holiday season.

Rounds, whose Palmer home also includes three emperor scorpions, three geckos, and two Chinese water dragons, an iguana-like creature, said Nekiza is an amazing animal.

In the wild, tree boas can jump twice their length; they spend most of their time in trees feeding on unsuspecting finches. Watching him slither about his cage, moving sticks around, and devour his meals -- most typically a dead rat -- is fascinating, Rounds said.

"I love this guy to death; he's an awesome guy," he said.

Fiancee Michelle Hicks, 38, who provides care for developmentally disabled adults, is equally enamored of the snake.

"It's twisted, but it's like watching a train wreck," she said. "You can't turn away."

Hicks said she picked Nekiza out at a Wasilla pet store a year and half ago. His coloring -- slate gray sprinkled with brown and red dots, his feisty attitude and his crinkled tail, possibly the result of an early encounter with a bird -- entranced her.

"He was just so beautiful," she said.

He was also caught in the wild, unlike many store-bought snakes, which are bred in captivity, she said.

Then only a paltry three feet long, Nekiza seemed tame. But he grew increasingly aggressive once they got him home, the couple said. After about six months, he started lunging at the side of the cage when they walked by, Rounds said.

He also started trying to bite. Twice he sank his fangs into Rounds' hand.

While not as bad as a scorpion bite -- a feeling Rounds compared to being stung by 30 wasps at once - the bite still hurt, he said, especially as the snake started walking his nearly inch-long teeth up his hand. Constrictors do that, Rounds said.

"They pull out one tooth at a time, move it up, then pull out the other fang," he said. "They keep doing it over and over again."

Then came the chokehold incident. Rounds said he could have forcibly pulled the snake from his neck, but it might have killed the animal. Instead he tried to stay calm, and eventually decided to stick his head into the aquarium.

Nekiza wasn't doing much to increase his appeal as recently as last week. Coiled on a gnarled piece of wood in a small tank, he kept his head up, continually flicked his tongue and generally looked like he was trying to will away the glass between him and a visitor. That's his strike pose, Rounds said.

To decrease his appeal even further, he defecated when Rounds went to retrieve him.

The couple said they've tried to make Nekiza happy. They added natural habitat, including bamboo in his cage, fed him more and even tried moving him to a bigger cage.

"He doesn't seem to want to be happy," Rounds said.

Rounds said he wouldn't let his pet go to a home where someone doesn't know how to care for him, or to someone who may decide he's too aggressive and throw him out.

Most of the about dozen people who have responded to his ads so far have lost interest as soon as he mentioned the snake is aggressive.

Others were dissuaded by the work involved. Caring for a snake is more work than people think. They need to be fed regularly, have their cages cleaned and occasionally be rubbed with snake oil -- yes, snake oil.

They must be kept warm. Rounds said his electricity bill can top $300 a month.

Rounds said he's asked for an adoption fee of $160 that includes the tank, but he'd waive that if someone would promise to take Nekiza back to the Amazon or other suitable environment and release him.

"I think he would really like that," he said.

In the meantime, he's still searching for ways to lift Nekiza's sullen spirits. One idea -- finding a female companion -- he considered but quickly rejected.

"I'd buy him a mate, but he'd probably eat it," he said.

Reporter S.J. Komarnitsky can be reached at skomarnitsky@adn.com or 352-6714.