Later, Alligator

 

contributed by Tony

 

 



 



Two Sundays ago I was walking Dixie by the pond across the street from us when I noticed something floating about 20-30 feet from shore.  My first thought was that it was an alligator but they haven't been reported in the neighborhood since we've been here so I thought I'd take a closer but safe look.  Knowing that an alligator can run very quickly when on land, I decided to take Dixie home and grab Jan's camera with its 300mm telephoto lens for a close up picture.  I wanted proof of the gator because once I would tell neighbors about it they wouldn't believe me unless I had a picture of it.  Many of us here at Compass Pointe have dogs & cats and I didn't want someone to lose a pet because I didn't warn them.  When I got back to the pond he/she was still there, lazily soaking up the late morning sun, or worse, waiting for "Sunday brunch".  I took several shots including having identifiable homes framed in the background to prove where I was.  Judging from the size of the head I estimated it to be about 14' long but something just didn't seem right.  I've seen alligators in the Cape Fear River but you usually just see their eyes and snout at water level.  I picked up some 2-3" rocks and carefully walked down to the pond.  I tossed the first rock at the animal but since I didn't attend the Cleveland Indians Spring Training Camp my throw was short and so was the second shot.  Down to my third, and last rock, I hit the water just to the right of its snout.  "Kerplunk", I thought the gator would disappear to the bottom of the pond.  Instead I saw its head bob up and down in the water.  Lo and behold I realized it was a "fake" alligator head.  I looked around to see if any neighbors were watching and snickering.  If they were, they probably were in their house saying, "we scared another sucker!"

 

Well I felt I would rather be safe than sorry so I swallowed my pride and walked home to tell Jan about the adventure.  Of course I didn't tell her it was a fake until after we downloaded the pictures.

 

A few days later I talked to Emil, who lives by the pond, and has stocked the pond with fish so people could catch them.  Of course he laughed at my story but told me he bought the "head" to scare the otters away.  Otters!  I didn't know we had any in the neighborhood.  He said he's seen the otters in the early morning and that they feed on the fish.  Alligators are their predators so theoretically the otters just move on to another pond.  By the way, when he ordered the gator head the caption indicated the size of the gator would be approximately 13' long so I was pretty close on my guesstimate.

 

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!