Matthew's Scorpion

Matthew has been asking for a pet Emperor scorpion for a good two years.  I told him he could get one when he was eight. Well, he turned eight in November.  Now, please understand, Matthew is a walking encyclopedia on animal and science facts, he's truly interested in these animals. I put him off for awhile, but he saved his money and I finally agreed.  We went to Petco, and I told the front check out lady we needed help to buy a scorpion. She called over the loud speaker for assistance to reptiles.  Well, this poor young girl shows up. She asks us if we are sure, because you can't play with a scorpion.  I blurted out that we were used to poisonous pets, we have a pair of fire belly toads.  So, she opens the cage, and there are at least six scorpions running around in there, she's trying to push one into the little box.  Trust me, I could feel her pain.  Thankfully, a fellow employee, a young man, came to her rescue.  He reached in, picked it up by the tail and put it in the box.  OK, so we found everything else we would need, and went to check out.  Well, in all the excitement, the pair who helped us neglected to give us our little slip with the checkout code on it.  So, once again the gal was on the loudspeaker calling for help from the reptile department.  Meanwhile, quite a line is forming behind us, and the lady directly behind us asks, what's in that box, everybody is shying away from it.  The check out lady shoves it toward her and says it's a scorpion, would you like to hold it?  Of course she did not.  We finally made it home and got him set up in his new home. Honestly, I have no desire to touch it, but it is interesting to watch him.  We put him under a black light, and he glows green.  Matthew isn't so shy though, he's picked him up by the tail a few times and he did get himself pinched, but he said it didn't really hurt.