December 2006                                                    The Megaphone                                                               Page 4

The Florida Outback

by Edith (Pritchard) Alexander

I call it that because of the daily occurrences that take place OUT BACK of our house. We had two interesting and exciting events happen on the same day. The first was the all day struggle of an alligator to actually swallow an otter it had caught in our little lake OUT BACK. He caught the otter about 8 a.m. and was still struggling to swallow it as night was falling. Since alligators do not chew their food, they have to swallow it whole and apparently that is not an easy thing to do with an otter of this size. I’ve heard of long lunches but this was ridiculous. If I had to work this hard at eating, I think I would go on a diet or become a vegetarian. The following picture tells the story, and yes, it is a picture we actually took from our backyard.

Later in the day a bobcat got a rabbit in our neighbor’s yard. I will spare you the picture of the bobcat with the headless rabbit and just display him after his feast, walking across our yard.

Now I know what you are thinking -- where do they LIVE? We really do live in a civilized neighborhood, in front that is. From the front it is a manicured, deed restricted, suburban neighborhood. From the back it is strictly old Florida, with a jungle a mile deep. We have the best of both worlds here. All we ever had in Chicago were rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks. How mundane!

Edith (Pritchard) Alexander, '56

Venice, Florida

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