gator got our dog

This picture has brought back some not to good memories. Many years ago we lived on a canal and had a miniature collie. One day we found out there was a very big gator in the canal so before going fishing for the day I told the kids to not let the dog out, or if they did they were to keep him on a leash or tied outside because he loved the water. Kids being kids did not listen and the dog went for a swim. The gator got the dog and all the kids seen it happen. When we got home they told us what happened. They told us the cops were looking for it but could not find it. So that night my husband told me we are going to go find this gator, we had an old johnboat at the house but no oars, so my husband found a 2x4 for me to row with and he had a spotlight, I was rowing and he was looking when we saw another spotlight and could hear a cops radio, so my husband did not turn his light back on and we got next to the shore and quietly rowed back to our house. The next day we called the local gator hunter and told him a 12 foot gator got our dog. He told us the biggest gator in our area was 7 feet. We convinced him to come take a look at the prints we found that day, where it crossed the canal to go in another part of it. The gator hunter took one look at the size of it's footprint and agreed, it was a keeper, as he called it. My husband has big hands and the footprint was bigger than his hand. The part of the canal that the gator went in was full of water hyacinths and he never found it. Our dog floated up a couple days later so we got him out of the canal and buried him next to our house.