My Gator and I

A friend from school
Offered me
His pet alligator,
Saying he could
No longer keep it,
And I jumped
At the opportunity.
What young boy
Wouldn’t have?
I stashed him
In our bath tub
Which I partially filled
With water
So he could
Swim around,
Then tried to figure out
What to feed him.
What do you feed
A 2.5 foot long alligator?
He must have been
Ravishingly hungry
Because he went after
My fingers and toes
With a vengeance.
After a couple days
Without a shower,
And observing that the gator
Was getting
Frantically hungry,
I decided to let him go
In the swamps
Near where I lived
Where he could probably
Find something
He liked to eat
Besides me,
Maybe some frogs
Or fish, or something.
Twenty-five years later,
I happened to read
About an 18-foot long alligator
That eat a hiker’s dog
In a swamp
East of Las Vegas.
I could never know for sure,
But I had
A pretty good suspicion
Whose gator that was!