Alligator in the Pond

It is always enjoyable to walk around the pond, especially in the evening.  Often a huge bird with a very long beak will fly over.  One day, when he is still enough to pose for the camera, I hope to be able to get his picture.  There is also a huge hawk living near the pond and we often see him flying here and there, but he always stays close by.  There are many foot-long size turtles swimming around.  As we walk around the pond, often times the turtles will put their little heads up out of the water as if to say hello.

Our most unusual visitor now is a little guy we have named Alfred the Alligator.  He is just a little thing, only about 3 feet long.  From living in Florida for so many years, we know about the dangers of alligators and have a healthy respect for them and would never take any chances.

In the below photo Alfred is there watching us walk around the pond.  He is a little hard to see in this photo because he blends in with the shadows in water.

There is a very large lake a few miles away from us, called Lake Iamonia.  We wonder if he originally lived there, and one day started walking, got lost and found our pond.  That would have been quite a hike for this little fellow.  He appears to be about three feet long, which would probably mean he is about three years old now.  Alligators are only about 10 inches long when they are hatched and can grow to be about 10 feet long.  Florida is reported to have at least one million alligators.  So, it is not too surprising that one would show up in the pond.

Alfred was very curious about us.  He sat and watched us for a long time.  If we moved fast it would scare him and he would go under the water.  Before long he would appear again and actually would toodle around in the water trying to keep up with us as we were walking along on the banks.  My husband often feeds the fish in the pond with floating catfish food, which he was doing on this day, but Alfred did not seem interested in the fish food.

In the below photo my husband was walking across the bridge to the pond island and little Alfred just propped his head up on a pond branch and watched.  I got the feeling he was a little on the lonely side and was enjoying just having some company around, even if we were humans.



In the below photo, while Alfred curiously looks on, you can see his little turtle friend swimming in the background, just under the water.

He really is kind of cute propped up on that tree branch!

Again, I continued to have the feeling that this little alligator was enjoying having company,  just by the way he followed us around.  Can you imagine the poor little guy not having any family around; he really must get lonely!



One day soon we will have to think about calling the proper authorities to have Alfred relocated to a place where children and dogs don't play and folks don't fish.



As we moved away from the pond, he moved closer to shore.  And then, actually very slowly came ashore.  I got the feeling he was thinking:  "Wait, where are you going?"  Come back!

Well, to finish the story, the next evening when my husband went down to the pond, he told me Alfred was waiting on the shore,  right in the same spot where he was yesterday when we left.  Wow! could he possibly have been wishing to see some humans and to have company again.

Thank you for stopping by and again walking around the pond with us.  Have a blessed day.