Down the Bayou South Louisisana

LIFE AND TIMES DOWN THE BAYOU IN THE SOUTH


All four of the kids came running into the house one afternoon wanting a whole loaf of bread to feed a lizard they said they were playing with outside. We argued for a while about how lizards don't need a whole loaf of bread. I offered them a few slices of the bread and all four of them stomped around until I realized bread is cheap, and I would rather save my energy for a more worthwhile argument. Out the door the four little pantry raiders bounced with my large fresh loaf of Evangeline Maid bread. A few minutes later as my husband enter the kitchen he asked what all the commotion was about. I explained that "his" 4 children insisted they needed my brand new, whole loaf of Evangeline Maid bread to feed some darn lizard.

He then looked sort of thoughtful and asked "What kind of lizard?"

I answered as calmly as I could "I have no clue, but I am sure it was one of those green ones that the tails always break off when you try to catch them."

Then he asked another very curious question, "Are you sure?"

"No, I am not sure. They said it was a lizard." I quipped since I considered this a useless interrogation.

The next thing that I saw was him running out the back door like somebody's mama was chasing him with a rolling pen.

Within minutes he was coming back through the same door dragging all four children kicking and screaming. I could pick out each child's voice from the jumbled chorus of their pleas, "We're just feeding the lizard daddy!" "We weren't doing nothing bad daddy!" "Don't be mad daddy!" "We didn't hurt it, we were just feeding it Daddy!"

My husband was all red in the face, and somewhat puffed up like a hot-air balloon and yelling, "If I have told ya'll once I have told ya'll a million times, those aren't lizards, they're ALLIGATORS."

The lizard turned out to be a real four foot long alligator. It was not unusual to have to call the Department of Wild Life and Fisheries in South Louisiana, but we lived in the middle of a subdivision (we did have a drainage ditch that ran the full length of our property). The Fisheries Agent again explained to the children why they really should not FEED THE ANIMALS. We were very lucky that this wild four foot long alligator did not hurt one of our precious little ones.

The agent explained that the alligator just took a wrong turn from the bayou and followed the drainage ditches, and then ended up smack dab in the middle of my yard where my children found it.