Quote:
Originally Posted by tsst
I like the second pic in post #9. He is giving his warning that he means business!
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That was also my favorite pic. I love it when a bitty little thing is feisty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irish Eyes (Mrs.Z)
I was enjoying the pix BIG time until I got to the alligators. Here I was, thinking, "How cool! It must be great living in FL!".
The gators quickly reminded me of one reason I'll never live there. Not that I don't like them--I love the feel of their skin (someone had one at a reptile show that I got to pet). I just don't want one snatching one of my Pomeranian or somesuch :-).
That, and hurricanes. Oh, yeah, and now, Gulf Coast oil.....
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I have a pommie! Typically I do not worry about her. Certainly I wouldn't walk her off leash, near a lake, in the dark or anything like that but otherwise I don't worry to much. Besides with small dogs gators are really the least of your problems a few years back a hawk swooped down and took off with a families chihuahua. But even with the occasional strange incident, by far the biggest threat to a dog here like most other places is heart worm or getting hit by a car.
The gators aren't interested in what we are up to. They are way to wise to be concerned with us. When I was about 6 we were up in the glades at a swimming area and a tourist ran into the water and grabbed me and pulled up on on the beach because he saw a gator. My Dad, thinking I was being kidnapped was about to beat the tar out of the man until he realized that the man thought he was saving me. What the guy didn't know is that my parents had swam there for years even before I was born and that gator was always there. My Parents called him Allen and Allen was a very polite gator who always kept a very respectful distance form the swimming area. They would have never been so reckless as to let me swim with a gator that was a stranger (or one that was getting close) but since it was just Allen nobody was worried. I always tell my kids that wild animals can hurt you but if you pay attention and give them enough space they probably won't. After all while some animals may have the ability to hurt a person typically speaking animals do not regard humans to be food. The sharks in the ocean consider fish to be much more tasty than human and likewise the gators would rather have a tasty bird.
If you want something to be afraid of in FL forget about the gators, and the hurricanes both are small potatoes. Gators aren't interested in you and hurricanes give lots of advance warning so you can get out of town if necessary. In FL the thing to worry about is lightening. At least a couple buildings a month are reported to be struck by lightening. The Amway center and a house in Oviedo were struck just this week, in addition to about 2-3 small brush fires started by lightening as well this week. Plus at least once or twice a year there is the obligatory person struck by lightening report. On the other hand I cannot even remember the last time I heard of anyone dying from a gator or shark. Yes occasional bites happen but rarely deaths.
The saying is "There is a price for paradise." The con column can list gators, sharks, lightening, hurricanes, incompetent elections, gulf oil spill, and as many other things as anyone can think of, but the pro column still has one very important item to list NO SNOW. Even with ocean/beach removed due to the recent unfortunateness in the gulf I still think that no price is to high to pay for the pro which is No snow! Of course it did snow lightly in some areas this winter and so we were all in a tizzy earlier this year because mother nature betrayed us and sent light snow LOL. Of course
maybe we should all just be thanking BP for showing her who's boss and avenging the whole snow injustice that was inflicted on us this winter
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