January 3, 2022 - My son Neal lives in Manhattan, N.Y. After we had visited him in the city a few times, we invited him to visit the Sabine Game Refuge in Hackberry, Louisiana with us one summer. I wanted to impress him with the swampy environment and the creatures that live there… especially the alligators.
As we walked along a brushy trail we spotted a large swamp rabbit nibbling grass along the water’s edge. Neal commented on the size of the rabbit while I took its picture. We walked to the end of the trail, climbed the lookout tower and were returning to the truck when we heard a large BOOM!!!... almost like a shotgun blast. We turned in time to see an alligator throw the hapless rabbit into the air and then heard the crunching of bones. It happened too fast for me to get a picture.
I thought our excitement was over, but just before we got back to the truck, I spotted four baby alligators sunning in the nearby grass and slid down the steep embankment for a close-up. Neal suddenly screamed out, “Dad…. watch out!” I quickly clawed my way back up the slick bank with the charging mother alligator at my heels. If Neal had not seen the gator, it would have been certain disaster for me. We talked about my close encounter with the alligator on the way home and Neal told me how scary the swamps of Louisiana were.
“They’re almost as dangerous as the streets of New York,” he laughed.
