Posted on 09/26/2009 1:18:04 AM PDT by kingattax
CLEARWATER — On a hot day, Diane Blackwood stopped in the shade of an oak tree on the shore of Sawgrass Lake. Her vizsla, Ritka, sniffed along the waterline. Her dachshund, Beka, chased critters in the grass.
It was about 4:30 p.m. Monday, and Blackwood needed a break. She and her husband, Wesley Elsberry, had just followed a new job to Clearwater, and while he was at work she was surveying homes around the St. Petersburg park.
Suddenly, at the water's surface, a swirling. Something was underneath. Time to go.
Blackwood called out a run command to her dogs and turned to walk away. Ritka, a trained bird dog, dashed up from the water. Blackwood, a 5-foot-2 human, tripped and fell.
Out of the swirling and onto the shore launched a nearly 7-foot alligator, its eyes pinned on her. She was on her hands and knees, crawling away, when it lunged again, sinking its teeth into her calf.
Did she scream? She can't remember, although she thinks she didn't.
"It was slightly less painful than the blade of a lawn mower hitting your foot," said Blackwood, 48. "I've had a horse step on my foot. It doesn't help to scream."
What would help, she thought as the alligator tugged at her leg, would be to get away.
She reached back, stuck her hand between its jaws and tried to pry herself free. The prehistoric beast didn't let up.
As her left hand locked with the alligator's mouth, her right hand went for something more sensitive — its eye. Her thumb dug into the socket.
The gator let go.
Her leg was bleeding. Her thumb was bleeding. But she was okay. She gathered her dogs, wiped off the dirt, put a towel on her car seat and drove away.
She hated emergency rooms, and she didn't want her parents or husband to "freak," so she told them calmly.
She called her health insurance company, just to make sure she was covered, and then headed to Morton Plant Mease Hospital.
A large bite wound on her calf, a puncture wound on her thumb and some scratches on her hand, they told her. She got a few antibiotics, some gauze pads and dressing, and went home.
The alligator wasn't so lucky, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse.
A trapper, using the bite marks as a guide to what to look for, caught the 10- to 12-year-old gator late Tuesday.
Its meat and hide will be sold and the profit will go to the state's nuisance alligator program.
So how do we, potential entrees, respond knowing there are malicious creatures lurking in our lakes? We stop feeding them.
"These gators that tend to not be afraid of people tend to be the ones who come running when you throw the bait," Morse said. "They come to you, and this one did that without any hesitation."
It also helps, he said, to keep your pets on solid ground. To alligators, they look like prey.
Blackwood, who has a doctorate in marine sciences and is familiar with alligators, said she plans to go back to Sawgrass Lake Park — eventually.
She doesn't hold a grudge.
"I'm actually more angry at the person who fed him," she said. "The alligator was acting like an alligator."
Glad she and her dogs survived. She should get a nice purse and shoes out of it.
Note to self, remember this.
PETA will have her in court soon.
/sarc
Sounds sorta like:
"I ain't got time to bleed"-Jesse Ventura
I don't know many Floridians who feed their neighborhood gator. They're usually into the fish, frogs, turtles and birds in and around their habitat. What's next, we have Bull sharks because someone's feeding them too? More likely, it would have been this individuals dogs who may have attracted the gators attention.
Her vizsla, Ritka, sniffed along the waterline. Her dachshund, Beka, chased critters in the grass.
It's like ringing a dinner bell to a gator.
had that been my toddler...damn...woulda been all over
greenies claim gators are sweet
kids don’t forget Captian Hook..
Gators are ok, not sweet, but ok.
But don’t go wrestling with them.
Correction:To alligators, they look likeare prey.
That park is filled with gators. Obviously she had just moved to town. The dachsund would have been a great meal for the gator.
We live on a golf course, and there are “stupid” golfers that put their hands into the water to retrieve their golf ball. Last gator they took out of the lake (water hazard) across from us was 10ft 4 inches. It had killed a boxer (the dog type, LOL) and was swimming around the lake with it’s carcass in it’s mouth...so the authorities sent a trapper.
There are walking paths and an elevated boardwalk at the park she was walking through, and they’re there for a reason.
Anybody in Florida who walks near the edge of a lake, especially with dogs, is asking for trouble. At least in our neck of the woods.
Apparently plenty of tourists do - there were signs all over Sanibel telling people NOT to feed the gators. I figured tourists were throwing scraps, or even hand-feeding, the cute little baby ones (and they ARE cute) and were too stupid to realize that baby ones grow up into big ones, and teaching them that humans are a source of food is double-plus-stupid. Then the tourists go home, and the residents are left to deal with the problem.
The gator was after the dogs, most likely.
first alligators, now giant pythons that can eat the alligators (or anything else a gator can). Florida is returning to prehistoric times. The bugs are already big enough to carry off a small child LOL.
Good story with a happy ending..
Reminded me of a time when I was about 22yo stationed at Homestead AFB...
President Bush (41) was visiting HAFB and had SS everywhere. Another AF friend and myself where walking around the flightline to a “hidden” area of HAFB to go fishing.. each with a 6-pack of beer in 1 hand and the fishing poles and tackle boxes in the other.
We were stopped and directed to the line (with the beer and poles in hand) the line of awaiting people to shake his hand. (?! lol)
Well, we met him.. and tried to get around the flightline to go fishing, but the SS wouldn’t let us go because of safety for the Pres.. so we went back to our dorm/barracks and got in his little pickup and high tailed it around the flightline and on to our fishing spot. It was a maze back there and I guess we were too young and stupid to realize what we did wasn’t good... about 7 or so minutes later there where AH-60s (3 or 4) combing around overhead... but they couldn’t see us and finally moved off... guess they figured if we were going to do something, we would have to go in much closer.... plus it was a pretty big AF base (meaning no threat to 41.
Anyway, getting to the funny/scary part..
We started fishing in a creek that fed off of a small man-made lake.. and were doing well (can’t remember how many fish we caught..).. About 30 minutes after we settled in under the Palm tree shade and where just chatting, I aimed my throw (the creek was pretty narrow.. about 10-15 feet wide) and tossed it the best I could toward a log in the creek, hoping that there were some perch or bass around it.
It wasn’t a log (o.O)
The log surfaced, and I swear it was about 12 foot, and swam straight for us. I can’t remember what happened to the Michelob in my hand.. or the fishing rod (nice one too, btw).. all I remember is that I probably broke every one of my records of when I was in Track in High school (personal, not school or statewide.. dunno, I might have beat them too :p).
I don’t recall going back to go fishing there agin.. scared the heck out of me.. being from West Texas and never seeing an alligator before.
Oh, forgot to mention that my aim was off in the bait him him on the head.. lol... 1 “wee weed” off gator, I am sure.
Then there is the lady dangling her legs over the side of a seawall splashing her feet in the water. Gator came and pulled her in.
That’s their favorite meal. We adopted a dog and he wasn’t as saavy as our dog that was raised with us. He thought it great fun to chase the alligators off the bank and back into the water (we had to break him of that.) But he weighed 90 lbs, it’s the little dogs that are gator bait usually.
My folks don’t live far from us and a gator (about 5 foot) had wandered into their back yard a couple weeks ago. Happened to us before too. We told him just make sure your gate is open and he has a way out and he’ll leave in good time.
Good thing they lack opposable thumbs.
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