Gator!

It’s official! We have a gator living in the lake behind our home. Studly first noticed him Saturday afternoon, but he disappeared before I could get a good look at him.

Yesterday I had to drive into Tallahassee to buy some final touches for our Labor Day meal and when I pulled into the driveway Studly was grinning from ear to ear.

“Hurry!” he urged.”the gator’s right behind the deck.”

I didn’t need coaxing. I left my groceries in the car and trotted down to the dock with my husband in tow. As we neared the dock, Studly said “I don’t see him now. He must have left.”

We stepped out onto the dock and bam! the little stinker shot out from underneath the boards we were standing on. I must confess, Studly squealed like a little girl while I maintained a calm demeanor. At least that’s the story I’ll be telling.

Once our hearts returned to something resembling their normal number of beats per minute we had an opportunity to look at our gator. He (she?) stopped about 20 feet out to observe us as we observed him. He isn’t very big–maybe three feet in length, and quite handsome as alligators go. As soon as we returned to the house we watched him swim back underneath our deck. Oh joy! He’s claimed our property as his own.

There are two schools of thought regarding alligators in our neighborhood. The first is that they are a menace and should be disposed of as soon as they are spotted. The other school says, it’s a lake, it’s Florida, you take the gators along with the snakes, the fish, and the turtles.

Studly and I won’t be calling local attention to our little guy any time soon. We’re pretty stoked that he chose us. By the same token, I won’t be kayaking on our lake until he’s gone. I don’t want to be gator bait.

Peace, People!

Author: nananoyz

I'm a semi-retired crazy person with one husband and two cats. View all posts by nananoyz