A Dream About Buttons, my pet snake

I dreamt that Buttons was growing weak. He was very skinny and could not eat. I put a mouse in his vivarium and Buttons attacked but wasn't able to suffocate the mouse as he normally does. Then, Buttons became only head and tail, no body inbetween. He looked like a fat, fin-less fish.
.....
In real life, Buttons is about 5 feet long and 2.5 inches thick (thicker when recently fed). He is a ball python that my sister adopted then gave me for my birthday. I feed him a rat about once a month. My snake is beautiful but most people don't think so. I don't care, I love seeing people's reactions when they see my snake... I don't know why, but most people are afraid.

For example, this past Sunday, I was playing Guitar in the front yard with Esteban and we saw a Cholo ride up in a truck. He was a norteño -holding his red-rag in hand one hand as he stepped out of his car trying to look 'hard'. Then he saw me, with buttons and his whole demeanor changed.

From across the street, he called out to me "Is that a snake?"

"yeah..." I explained.

The young man, probably my age (23), came close to check out Buttons. He was scared and I thought to myself, how funny -a norteño is afraid of a snake. I also was somewhat disturbed by his red-rag. He seemed like a nice guy and I felt sorry that he was choosing gangs, either as a lifestyle or as a 'poser'. I wish I had asked him his name. Maybe I'll see the guy again. Who knows.