The Alligator is For Real!

We had heard there was an alligator in the pond behind our house last Halloween. Despite watching the pond closely every day, we had seen nothing.  Then on Wednesday Dear One came in from the deck to say there definitely was an alligator in the pond.  Yikes!

The next day I was on my walk.  At that point I was walking across the dam at the end of the pond.  As I looked down from one end of the pond to the other all of a sudden I saw a bumpy rough-looking dark place in the pond.  There he was!  Yikes times two!

You can barely see the black spot in the lightest part of the pond.  That is the alligator. 

On the weekend I happened to go to our HOA Facebook page by a fluke. The very first thing I saw was a picture of a very large (probably seven feet long!!!) alligator "sunning" on the bank a few doors down from our home.  Really YIKES!!!  Since I have not gotten permission from the photographer to post his picture, just imagine a large alligator in a field on the bank of a small pond.  That is what the picture shows.

Personally, I prefer to see the alligator in the middle of the pond!  Other people around the pond want the gator gone.  Well, me, too, but I suppose if we are fair, ponds in the south are the actual homes of all kinds of not so friendly folks.  Like the water moccasin.  And now the alligator.  Apparently we have TWO alligators, one quite a bit smaller than this one.  We will have to watch carefully every single time we go out.

To be honest, I have a horrible image in my mind of the big old guy on the deck just outside our slider door...! If that happens, I will take a picture of him, then will call the HOA to GET THAT GUY OUT OF HERE!!!  I don't care if the pond is his natural habitat and that almost everyone around the pond thinks he is great and have even named him Ripples.  Maybe that is a crazy concern, but....