Jane Clark, Jason's Mom, has been a key contributor to the success of Southeastern Reptile Rescue. This is mainly because she tolerated so many of Jason's antics as he was growing up. Once, when Jason wanted a pet snake, he went to his mom and pleaded with her saying that someone wanted to give him a couple of harmless snakes that were worth a considerable amount of money. Jason told her that a friend of his wanted to buy the snakes and he only needed to keep them at the house for a couple of days, maybe a week and then they would be gone. As soon as Jane gave a little, Jason took a mile! He then began collecting numerous snakes, lizards and turtles. And, he didn't get rid of the first two snakes he was "holding temporarily" until years later. Once Jason had built up a considerable collection of animals, people began to ask him to do exhibits in the form of "petting zoos". The only problem was that Jason was only 12 years old and couldn't drive. So, that's where Jane came in. Hot summer days were spent loading animals into an old '71 Ford pick up that belonged to Papa, Jane's Dad and driving Jason and his menagerie all over the place to show people his animals.

When the snakes had to be fed, Jane was the lucky one who got to drive Jason to the pet shop to buy mice. Ordinarily, this would not have been so bad except for the fact that Jane is extremely terrified of rodents.  Once, Jason talked Jane into picking up some mice for him on her way home from work. He assured her that the mice could not escape and get into her car and in fact she would not even have to look at them because they would be in a secure cardboard box out of view. As Jason waited on his mom to arrive home with his pet's dinner, he began to hear a car horn blowing. He looked out the window and saw Jane getting out of her car which was parked in the driveway by the road and running toward the house screaming for Jason. Jason met Jane on the front porch who was screaming frantically about the mice saying that they had chewed a hole through the box and were sticking their heads out looking at her and that he'd better get them before they got loose in her car. Another time Jane created almost the same scene as she pulled her car over at the end of the driveway to check the mail. She saw a small box mixed in with the mail and took it out and placed it on her front seat. As she began to drive up the driveway she noticed that the box read, "Live animal handle with care". Thinking back to the mouse incident, she abandoned her car until Jason removed the box in which someone had shipped him a small lizard. Since then, Jane has always been very supportive and continually says that no matter what Jason does next, no matter how crazy, she won't be surprised. The next time you visit one of our events, be sure to stop by and give your condolences to Jane for all that she continues to endure for as she calls him, "my crazy son".