Gators Happen...

While we were up at Mayberry this time, we saw one of our more eccentric lake neighbors. I don't know how long B and his wife have lived at the lake, but they sure seem to be quite comfy and secure with the local wildlife.

Alligators are to Texas as the Statue of Liberty is to New York --- a given. Gators like shallow water, and some parts of the lake are shallow this year, waiting for a heavy deluge up in Dallas so the Trinity River Authority won't be having to supply water from the lake. The depth of the water at our bulkhead is 14 feet. At normal levels, the lake will add six additional feet to that depth around our bulkhead.

I don't think 14 feet is exactly shallow, but that's on our side of the larger part of the cove. Across the cove, on the really shallow side in the smaller coves, the water is just two or three-feet deep. Ah... perfect for alligators. And there's one gator (at least one) in that shallow cove. Our next-door neighbor G thinks there are three different alligators.... one that's eight feet long, another about five feet long, and a little one measuring about three feet. I don't know who got close enough to take measurements, but I will take her word for it--- and stay out of the water till the 14-feet depth on our side of the cove rises to its 21-feet depth.... which will increase the depth on all sides of every cove near our property. The alligators will then find more shallow water, up near the ends of the cove, far away from our part of the lake.

Our neighbor B, however, across the cove, isn't afraid of alligators, and he's told us just that, the first time he met my husband up there. He says that the gators won't bother you unless they're mating or taking care of their babies. Our neighbor G says that the gators will also "bother" you if they're hungry, and she figures that B has been lucky that he hasn't been swimming in his cove when the gator is looking for lunch.

Not only was B swimming in his shallow cove while we were up there last week, but he set up a beach umbrella in the water and he was floating around in an inner-tube underneath the umbrella's shade. Straw hat on his head, beer can in one hand, the other hand propelling him around the shady part of the water underneath his bright blue umbrella. "Dang fool," said our neighbor G. Indeed. He was wearing bright orange bathing trunks, which I would guess could be easily seen underneath the water.

We figured that B had rigged up a long piece of plastic pipe, because we saw that sticking up out of the shallow water of his cove. Into that pipe went his bright blue umbrella. Then out came both B and his wife, both in straw hats, he floating with his butt in the inner-tube, and she floating on a blue plastic raft. And there came the alligator. Down the middle of B's shallow side of the cove. The gator's head was above the water, and judging by the size of the rest of his body visible just below the surface, I would guess the rest of him could've easily measured five feet in length.

Both B and his wife saw the gator and pointed to him, but neither one of them got out of the water. B just paddled in place underneath the umbrella's shade and sipped his beer. His wife adjusted her hat and sunglasses and just got more comfy on her little raft, her feet dangling in the water. I watched all of this from my porch. I could've gone into the cottage to get the cell phone, just in case I had to dial 911 in a hurry, but I just didn't want to take my eyes off of the drama unfolding on the lake.

Of course, the gator submerged himself, and try and I might, I just couldn't see which direction he was swimming. Back up into someone else's shallow cove on the opposite side? Or was he heading straight towards the bright blue umbrella? B and his wife kept their places, neither one of them making a move towards their bulkhead. They stayed there for at least another hour, and I guess the alligator wasn't looking for lunch that day. Of course, B is probably going to tell the neighbors exactly what happened, and will again tell everyone that we don't have to be afraid of the gators in the lake.

I'm still a city-girl at heart, I guess, because I still believe that wild animals are just that-- wild. And if you're not afraid of them, then the least you can do is respect them, especially when you're in their territory. And letting your orange-bathing-trunk-covered butt float around in an inner-tube not twenty feet away from an alligator is as disrespectful as one can get.