Let’s rewind a few years back to 2005. The location, Fort Hood, Texas. I was working on a Texas rat snake study. At the time we had 10 or so snakes transmittered and needed 20 more. We decided to place 100 coverboards throughout the study site. Quickly we learned that Army soldiers love to play with coverboards while they are training. It’s powerful fun to play with a 4x4 piece of plywood! Many disappeared within the first week after placing them out. So, we decided to spray paint “Scientific Experiment: Do Not Remove” on every board. The monotony of painting so many boards began getting to us, so I began reading the signs backwards as they were being spray painted. Most of it sounded like mumbo-jumbo…. “tenmirepxE cifitneicS,” but halfway through the painting of Remove, it read “omer.” I liked the sound of Omer mostly because it sounded like “Homer” from The Simpsons. At that point I decided I would like to name my kid, if I ever had one, Omer. Omer needs a middle name that’s when “do not” was reversed and fused creating “Tonod”. At that point in time standing on Manning Mountain in the Fort Hood Military Reservation the name “Omer Tonod” was created. I later contemplated the thought of having a kid and decided it wasn’t likely because I am a dork and not likely to marry or have kids. So, I should name the first snake caught under the new coverboard, Omer Tonod. The next week I caught a 5ft. 625g male. Yeah! The name now had a snake to belong to. If I had known then I would have a child in 2009, I would have reserved the naming rights. He was a good snake. Survived all 4 years of the study.

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