Killin' Time

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            Cancer - - Chemotherapy - - Alligators !

 

            Last Sunday I was killin’ time.  Tired, but trying to keep active.  At about 1 pm I decided to make run down to the Brazos River to where I have one of those game cameras set up.  That game camera, to me, is more fun than hunting.  I love to see all the different kinds a wildlife that cross the area.  I had 24 pictures, but I left it set, deciding to take the little digital card out later when there were more pictures.  I baited the path with some molasses and deer corn.  On the way back, as always, I observed what kind of shore birds were hanging out at the swamp.  Wood Storks, Night Herons, Great Blue Herons, Pink Spoonbills (see photo on the TrueToTexas website), and many more.  Now, I’ve told ya’ll about the alligators that showed up 8 or 10 years ago.  I guess they climbed out of the Brazos River and decided to set up headquarters in this 20 acre swamp.  See attached photo of one of the alligators.  I took the photo 2 or 3 years ago.  Well, over the years I’ve seen a big nest out on the island.  Wondering why we never saw any baby alligators?  You know, I’ve heard that other alligators, maybe ever the father, will eat the babies.  And I figured in this enclosed area they just always hunted down the babies and ate them.  Well, it’s about 1:30 pm and I look at the alligator nest out there on the island.  Something is real white at the top.  I wonder if that is part of an alligator egg?  I want to explore, but c’on, PIC line hooked to my arm, full of chemo, and getting dead tired.  I head to the house.  Hell, its nap time.

            4:30 pm Sunday, I can’t sleep.  Tom, I may be fighting cancer, but I am a bayou boy.  The call of the wild.  I’ve got to investigate that alligator nest.  Should I tell my next of kin?  Where to look for my body if I don’t return by dark.  I tell High School Girlfriend.  I have a choice, either Leslie’s canoe or a 10 foot jon boat.  I choose the jon boat and loaded in the back of my pick-up.  I back the pick-up up to the bank of the swamp right across from the alligator’s nest.  I need to conserve energy.  This way I can just paddle right across to the nest.  I see the alligator 30 feet north.  Just her eyes.  She is just laying there submerged.  I drop the jon boat off into the water.  Get the paddle and a shovel in case I want to dig out the nest.  ACROSS the short span to the island and the nest.  When I approach the island bank I see about 20 baby 5 inch alligators right off the bank in a canal used by the alligators to get to the nest.  I reach down and grab two baby alligators at once.  They all start making some little chirping noise.  ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE !  They say they are fast, believe them.  I thought that mama alligator was flying.  She hit that jon boat with an impact that knocks my camera off my neck and into the bottom of the boat.  I wasn’t thinking about that camera or taking photos, I was thinking about my appendages.  Next move, mama alligator hits the boat with her tail, I bust the paddle over her back.  Great, now I don’t have a paddle.  Well, across the swamp by shovel power.  Mama alligator seems to be waiting for an opportunity.  Well, I only hit the ground once between the jon boat and the bed of my pick-up.

            Don’t mess with a mama alligator.

            Sunday night I realize that I was lucky I was in that flat bottom jon boat and that it was sitting in mud.  If I would have been in deeper water I’m sure the boat would have capsized.  AND, that my effort may save saved a few babies this year.  Those big Wood Storks and Blue Herons were eating the babies as fast as they could.  Maybe with all the excitement the babies got spread out and a few will survive.

 

Another Texas sunset,

 

 

 

Craig Dickson

craig dickson realty

www.TrueToTexas.com