Published: May 11, 2008 11:40 pm            

Lee Ward: River critters give her the jitters: 5/12/08

A few years ago, I visited Newport and went to the aquarium there.

I love animals, except for one dreaded species. I should have realized they would be in an aquarium, but as I was walking down a corridor, I saw a sign ahead of me that said “Riverbank.” That’s when I realized I was within feet of snakes.

Never mind they would be contained in glass and I would be about 6 feet from those containers. I would still be within sight of them and that’s enough to freak me out.

I pushed ahead, trying not to look left or right for fear of making eye contact with one of the creatures. Once I’d made it past them, I stopped for a moment to recover and catch my breath, only to realize I was standing on a clear floor that spanned an aquarium with alligators. In fact, there was an alligator swimming directly toward me under the floor.

“Look out! He’s going to get you!” a security guard joked with me.

“I don’t care,” I said. “I’m just glad to be away from those snakes back there.”

“There’s more to fear from an alligator,” he responded. “They take a bigger bite.”

Gotta admit he’s right about that. Fortunately, neither the snakes nor the gators had a chance at me in the aquarium, but the truth is, I’m still much more frightened of snakes than gators.

That’s why when I read about the woman in Florida who found an 8-foot alligator in her kitchen, I couldn’t help but think she had it easier than my friend, who found a couple of black snakes in her house a few years ago.

If a snake got loose in your house, you might never find it. If that happened to me, I’d have to move out.

If there’s an 8-foot alligator in your kitchen, there’s no hiding it. It won’t slip into a vent and lurk in your duct work indefinitely like a snake would.

Even when I heard the story about the gator in the kitchen on television — the woman whose house was invaded was interviewed on a morning news program — I thought about what the guard at the aquarium said: “There’s more to fear from an alligator. They take a bigger bite.”

Either creature would have the opportunity to bite me all he wanted. If I found one of them in my kitchen, I’m sure I would have a heart attack right on the spot.

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.

        

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