Day 116 ALLIGATORS N SUCH

Day 116 Tue Nov 5 Zoe Can’t Stop Talkin

ALLIGATORS N SUCH

Ok  aunt dana’s been here twice now and for a total a over six weeks. She keeps tellin mischa that she has never seen an alligator. In fact she’s been tauntin mischa, sayin perhaps there is no real alligators left in this part of florida and perhaps they is a filament of mischa’s vivid imagination.

This makes mishca madder than a hatter and she always gets kinda puffed up around the edges when dana starts in on this line a conversation.

So today mischa declares is alligator huntin day and they is goin out and not returnin home without spyin themselves at least one gator.

So goodie for me, we were off to the quote un quote alligator park first thing this mornin.

Before ole mischa was  even outta the car (on accounta she always is the last girl outta the car, no matter what) dana and b and me spotted a gator motorin right across the canal headin straight for us! Oh mischa was wishin and hopin she had made a bet on the gator sightin, but she had not. She had to be content to gloat.

Which she proceeded to do for the remainder of the afternoon. Everybody put up with it cause before the day was done, we seen ourselves an alligator here and an alligator there, until we counted up to ten. Plenty for one day, and for a pup my size plenty for a lifetime really. Them gators has been known to eat pups for a snack.

I was, therefore, on a short leash for the entire park experience.

But gators, you know they is wiley creatures, they moves real slow. They moves so slow ya think they’re dead but they is anything but dead. They can rise up before you can blink an eye and snatch a turtle right off the top of a rock. A sweet little mindin-her-own-business-turtle. And that’s not all. Them gators will eat just about anything, and except for them thousand footlong pythons some idiot dumped into the evergaldes, there aint too many creatures that is left on the earth can or would dare eat one a them gators, except for another gator.  Them boy gators, they eats their own babies when they feels like it. Of course, as I may have mentioned prior, some greeks who will remain unnamed at this point, have also been known to make a meal outta their own babies too, but that is another story. Yeah them gators will eat a seven point buck or a little moor hen, they don’t discriminate when it comes to their dining options.

When they’s hungry, they eats. period. If yous in their way, they’d eat you...just sayin, best to keep a generous distance between your self and the bank where they love to sun bathe in the afternoon.

And so it was this afternoon when we spotted two examples, snoozin on the bank of the lake, and dana and b decide it is a bright idea to go have a closer look. Bein as they is both leos, they went. Me and mischa bein both chickens, we ran the other direction and hung out on a boardwalk.

Mischa called out to the girls that  the gator had opened his mouth real wide and they better be careful. Dana and B just pointed at us and laughed.

But the next thing we knew that old gator slid himself right off the bank and right down into the water. He left his eyes up on top a the water though, cause he was navigatin. Yeah he was navigatin his way right to where me and mischa was standin. Mischa kept mesurin the distance between the water and the bottom of the boardwalk. I guess she figured we was safe cause we held our position.

That dang gator came right up to us, just about a foot away and just stared and stared. Mischa said he was waitin for us to toss him a morsel. I said I hope she dint consider me a suitable morsel. And she said “oh zoe, now dont be ridiculous, I love you so much I’d let that ole gator have a bite a me before I’d let him get anywheres near you, butter butter cream cream sugar sweetie sweetie, you cute adorable dog, don’t you worry!”

As we left the park I heard one a them tryin to make what they call a joke.

I think it was ole dana, she looked over her shoulder as she climbed back into the car

and said ‘’see ya later,”  then there was like a five second pause and she said “alligator.” I heard mischa and b groan and saw them twist there muzzles all into a knot.

Last thing we saw was one a them anhingas sittin on a branch airin out her wings, like they do, for hours....and then we saw her snackin on little insects that was in her wing feathers. Mischa tapped dana on the shoulder and asked  “is that what they call eatin on the wing?”  This time all three of us groaned real loud and somebody even grimaced. Speakin a anhingas though, them gators snap them up for appetizers too.

Cheez pastas, nothin’s sacred around them reptiles.

Anyways despite the close up and personal view a the food chain today, which included some turtles, a few hawks, a kingfisher, several herons great and small...

we made it home safely and dana, to pay ole mischa back for the bet that never really got made in the first place, is makin us a big risotto diner.

I have no idea what that is, but I know if dana’s makin it, it is sure to have lots a butter in it and guaranteed, some cheese. So until we meet again, my self...later