Don't Mess With a Gator's Dinner

Gator
Originally uploaded by jjactive.

Florida transplant Ned shares with Activeness! his close encounter with an alligator:

While running around a lake, I saw a dead fish on the sidewalk, about 10 feet from the water. I've seen fish on the path before. I usually kick them into the lake. These fish typically are small or are lying right next to the water, so I assume they either jumped or were dropped onto the land by a bird. This fish was too far from lake to have jumped and too big to have been dropped by a bird.

Soon my short lake loop brought me back to the fish. This time I kicked it in. As I watched the fish skip into the water, I noticed a seven-foot alligator under the bush--about two feet away from me. Mr. Gator also was watching the fish splash into the water, but he didn't look as amused.

Mildly shocked, I almost lost my legs and fell over. As I shuffled away as quickly as my legs would manage, another runner stopped to explain that gators toss food up onto the land so that it rots. Turns out gators have a taste for rotten fish.

My lesson: Don't mess with a gator's dinner--especially when you're just two feet away.