Alligators in the Pool For a Party? Only In Florida!

I guess this has to be called "Weird Florida".

I grew up hearing how weird New Jersey was, but frankly it's pretty normal.  There were some amazingly beautiful areas once you got away from the inner ring suburbs of New York, and Philly.  We did have the Jersey Devil, some folks thought I was him, but no.

Here in Florida we've got some really strange critters.   People seem to feel they need to have exotic creatures around them that don't belong here.  Dogs and Cats don't exactly fit in our ecosystem either but we tend to make an exception.

Then there are those who thought it would be a good idea to keep an iguana in the house.  Eventually they escape and now you have them running around eating Bougainvilleas bare.  Apparently to an Iguana, Bougainvillea are addictive.  Iguana Crack.  I find them in the pool when they start to breed beyond a certain level and frankly now that they're back I'm looking forward to a good strong cold snap.

But those aren't natives, and they don't belong in my pool.

There's always someone who will try to tame the un-tameable.  Those folks I just keep a healthy distance from.  You never know when something like that will bite.  

Like a gator.  You know, Alligator.   There's a guy over in John's Pass on the west side of the state who rents one of them out.  Apparently, the creature is tame enough to swim in the pool, intentionally.  With your nine year old daughter.

I wonder if he wants an iguana or twelve?

So the gator is tame enough to swim with the kids in the pool, with its mouth taped shut of course.  It supposedly likes it too.   I know my own dog doesn't like the pool but there are some that do, so I can accept that.

I guess this is one of those Shrug And Move On things for me.  While it isn't exactly natural for a gator to chose a swimming pool instead of a nice warm swamp, it easily has a way of letting you know if it doesn't like it.  (SNAP!) 

See... a gator in a pool... It really happened.

If you would like to read more, Bay News 9 has the whole article and more pictures like the one above.  I'm just going to wander off, scratch my head in mild amusement, and make more coffee.

Since the state Wildlife Commission is looking into this, they'll determine if cruelty is happening to the gator.  As for me, I'm willing to let that go its course.