May I introduce you to Florida?
Florida is a place where alligators live. Up until this point I had convinced myself (as well as the grandparents over and OVER again) that there is no need to worry about those silly gators cause they only stay near the water anyway. Big Al--as we affectionally call our backyard water-dwelling friend--is harmless. Those pesky little holes in the fence in our back yard are seriously of no concern.
Well, let me tell you. I have been proven wrong. VERY wrong.
I'm driving the short distance to the park to meet Trevor on his way home from work today (it was the decided-upon drop-off point for the carpool today) and on the one side of the road I see police lights flashing. I wonder what they are for. As any good citizen would do, I stare. As I get closer I notice that a whole section is blocked off. I also notice that there are people standing around gaping at something. What in the world has happened at this house? Did someone get murdered?
And then I see him.
This gigantic, monstrous alligator sitting in the front yard of this house. He is HUGE. And don't even think I'm exaggerating. He's just sitting out there in plain daylight. I get the chills just thinking about it. And not only that, but somehow they got a rope around this cutie pie's jaws. The officer is standing (very still, I might add) quite a distance away just holding onto the other end of this rope. It was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. All these people had gathered around and were just waiting to see what this fella was going to do. Do police officers in Florida get trained in alligator fighting?
Anyway, so I pick up Trevor and we go right back by the place to see if anything's changed. Alligator is still there...this is probably 5 to 10 min. after my initial sighting. At this point, the other officers are obviously trying to get people to move away. Hmmm...I wonder why.
Acacia REALLY wanted to play at the park (not just drive to it), so we turn around AGAIN and once again drive past the scene. This time there are several men trying to hoist this thing into a pick-up truck. It is obviously either dead or tranquilized. The picture we finally were able to get (on Trevor's phone) is of the gator on his back just about to be thrown into this truck.
All I can say is, we will continue to NOT play in our backyard.
4 comments:
I think that when you guys get to heaven there will just be an alligator-shaped jewel for all of your crowns. hahahaha!
:) I enjoyed being reminded of my own sense of terror in the first year or two I was in this swampy state as I read of your encounter. You'll soon see the pattern to these sightings. It is, after all, APRIL (aka "mating season") and I'm confident that this was a male searching for companionship. Until they figure out how to use eHarmony, they'll do this every Spring.
Just teach your girls to zig zag run, they take FOREVER to turn and aren't smart enough to realize they could still go straight. They teach you these things in school down here :)
Thanks for your comments, friends. I feel like such an amateur Florida-dweller, if I can call myself that. I was forewarned of "mating season" in some form during the course of our 8 or so months here, but I didn't quite realize this is what they were talking about! Ya live and learn... :)
Post a Comment