Snakes are cool as long as they don't get all bitey.
The snake in my avatar was named Bitey by my kids. He had a different name when my son got him as a hatchling, but for obvious reasons, he was given the new name. Funny thing was, Bitey mellowed as he matured, and when he was full grown, he was the nicest handling snake we had.
Raising snakes was a fun hobby that I did with my son when he was younger, but we sold most of them years ago. I only have two left (that were supposed to be the kid's pets, but somehow, when the kids moved out, the snakes stayed)