After a while, one of the caretakers would walk down the street from the farm carrying a poking stick and wearing a top hat.\u00a0 He would slowly amble up to the porch in the Florida heat, tap the \u2019gator on the head to wake him up, and say, \u201cCom\u2019on, George, time to git on home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray well remembers the caretaker walking George down the street tapping him on the back to keep him going in the right direction headed home to The Alligator Farm.<\/p>\n
Then there is the story of the police officer in the Orlando area who got a call on the night shift about an alligator sitting in the middle of the highway. He, too, was fresh from up North, and really did not know what to do with a \u2019gator sitting in a road. Especially all by himself. Without any backup from a qualified Florida<\/em> law officer.<\/p>\n So being a resourceful public servant, he lassoed the lizard and locked him in the bathroom of a nearby gas station for safekeeping. He planned to wait until the gas station owner arrived in the morning to explain the situation, but then he got another emergency call.<\/p>\n While out on that call, he heard the dispatcher calling in another emergency about an alligator in the bathroom of a gas station. He never mentioned his \u201cresourcefulness\u201d to anyone.<\/p>\n Another Floridian tells of how he met his new neighbors.\u00a0 Coming home from work one day, one of the neighbors asked if he had seen their cat.\u00a0 \u201cHe is a big, fuzzy, lovable gray tabby.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a cat you let outside?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy, yes, he has always enjoyed going out and around the house.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy wife and I have two cats and we won\u2019t let\u00a0either\u00a0of them outside at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we have eagles flying in the area along with owls and hawks; they can pick up a cat and be gone with him in the blink of an eye.\u201d Pointing to the pond near their house, he added, \u201cWe also have alligators.\u201d<\/p>\n Al, just cruising the neighborhood ponds \/ J. Clark<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cNaw!\u201d<\/p>\n The two were “foreigners,” immigrants from other states in the Union and very ignorant of how to live in Florida. They also knew nothing of the wildlife in the Sunshine State.\u00a0 They looked doubtfully at the Floridian and asked, \u201cYou\u2019re kidding, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNope.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t let my cats out of the house for all the tea in China.\u201d At this, the immigrants became a little more concerned about the fate of their gray tabby.<\/p>\n A couple of days later, the Floridian drove home again and as he passed the pond, there was the \u2019gator.\u00a0 He went right to his neighbor\u2019s door and knocked.\u00a0 He announced the presence of the \u2019gator and the couple nervously chuckled.\u00a0 Then he led them to the pond.<\/p>\n There, silently and slowly swimming just underneath the water was a juvenile alligator.\u00a0 He was only about four or five feet long; every bit large enough to eat a cat.<\/p>\n The new Floridians, freshly arrived from states North and out West, were shocked!\u00a0 There was actually a big, cat-eating<\/em> lizard living in the pond.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you ever find your cat?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we did, and Dudley is never leaving the house again.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Dudley became a pest begging to go out. \u00a0The humans eventually had to either acquiesce or go insane.<\/p>\n It took Dudley only\u00a0a week to retrain his “masters” to the proper frequency of his outings.<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a92011 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n Subscribe by email<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can there be such a thing as a funny gator story? Well, yes. Of course. An older Floridian, Ray, who spent part of his childhood growing up in Saint Augustine tells the story of his grandmother\u2019s front porch and \u201cGeorge.\u201d … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/al.jpg\" "\\"al\\"")
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