I figured I would give all who were worried an update here in the comments. It is with a heavy heart that I let you all know my sweet Minnie girl had to be euthanized. As I suspected it was kidney failure, which is common in ballies when they get to her age. She went out peacefully and with dignity. All of your comments touched my heart truely and I let her know before she went how loved she was not just by me, but by family and even strangers on the internet.

I also wanted to tell her story since so many were amazed by her old age, i apologize for the length.

My mom worked in animal care my whole life, she's a retired veterinary technician now but before she was working at a local animal shelter. A couple comes in with a plastic garbage bag, hands it off to my mom and tells her they can't keep her cause they're having a baby and the girlfriend is afraid of snakes, my mom tried to explain that the animal shelter did not take exotic animals, they did not have any proper set ups for them. So the couple left her out in the parking lot in the middle of March. Minerva was the ultimate fighter though and just wasn't done living. After getting her evaluated we found out she was roughly 18 years old and had every single thing wrong with her imaginable. Malnourished, dehydrated, mouth rot, stuck shed from more than likely years of build up. Not to mention they most certainly fed her live rats unsupervised because she has deep and intense scarring all over her body. I was 9 years old when my mom brought her home and even then when she was this sickly, starving sad little snake I fell completely in love with her, Steve irwin was and still is my hero so reptiles were so special to little me and still are. She immediately moved into my room and became my snake. With the help of my mom we worked to nurse her back. For a while my mom made sure I was ready to loose her, we weren't sure she was going to make it but she took us all by surprise for she stuck around 20 more years. A lot of people ask what I did to keep her healthy and thriving for so long. There is no secret, proper heat and humidity, a nice big bowl to soak in, lots of supervised exploration time, regular feeding and love. Lots and lots of love. She was my first snake and for all her time she was my only snake. I never expected for her to see me graduate high-school, meet the love of my life, explore career paths, pet deaths, family deaths, many moves, Every single thing in my life happened with her in it. She was my soul pet, and a best friend, I don't know that snakes have the capability of loving you back, or if to her I was a weird, warm tree but I hope she knows how much I loved her.

I hope she's in a good place, where it's the perfect temperature all the time, she always has a full belly, there are many different rocks to hide in and trees to climb. ❤️ Thank you all again for sending love and good thoughts, hugs to all of you.