Albert, The Alligator

Albert, The Cayman Alligator

I was a babysitter to a rowdy boy, a know-it-all girl and a boy still in diapers at two years old. We lived in an apartment on the second floor of the house where I babysat. My husband worked swing shift on his job so our schedules seldom agreed but I had our beautiful, solid black cat to keep me company when he worked nights. I did not enjoy my job but it literally paid the rent and utilities. 

One morning he came home as I was eating breakfast before going downstairs to work. He poured himself a cup of coffee and said he had something he wanted to talk to me about. As he sat down at the table. I pushed my empty plate away and I asked him what he wanted to talk about.

“I work with a guy who has a problem. His wife is about six months pregnant and has ordered him to get rid of his current pet. She is very superstitious and is sure their baby will be born looking exactly like his pet .if he doesn’t get it out immediately. He has tried to convince her that isn’t true but she is adamant the pet has to go. Would you mind if I told him we will take it?”

“That depends. What is the pet?”

“Well …, you know how we have talked about getting a pet alligator?”

“Yes, we did talk about it but I still have my reservations about having an alligator in the house.”

“I know you do so that is why I’m asking you before I say anything to him. It is a baby Cayman alligator that can live in a ten gallon, he is going to take it to the river and throw it in. You and I know it cannot live through our cold winters in the wild but if it does, it would be a danger to  our wildlife and even people as it grows up. If you will feed it I’ll clean its tank. Please say yes.”

“I don’t know. What about our cat? As it grows it could endanger Spooky. Speaking of growing, do you know how fast they grow?”

“No, but I’ll find out. I don’t think they grow all that fast  When it gets too big we’ll already have an answer for what to do at that point. Please, please say yes. We’ll be saving its life.”

That was always the button to push on me and he knew it. I don’t like snakes but I won’t let anyone harm a nonvenomous one either. His magic words of “saving its life” made my decision for me. “Okay. We’ll take it but you better not forget to help take care of it. I can do the feeding and we’ll figure something to do with it while you are cleaning the tank. I just hope we are not making a mistake.”

Two days later he came home late because he had to pick up our new pet at his friends house. At least we didn’t have to buy a tank because that came with the critter. He sat the covered tank in the corner of the living room floor where we had decided to put it. When he uncovered the tank I saw a tiny alligator less than six inches long. It was so cute as it huddled in one corner still frightened by being transported. I know alligators are not thought to be cute but the babies actually are. At least this one was to me. We named him Albert from the Pogo comic strip and kept his presence our little secret.

Albert lived on the far end of his tank  from an area built as his swimming pool. I always fed him in the middle of the tank to force him to move around. All went very well for a month or so. We had gone to the library and looked up growth rates. They grow approximately one foot per year of life until they reach  about twenty feet. Albert obviously never read the books. He outgrew his swimming pool before the end of the first month. 

We knew he had to have somewhere to swim so I suggested the bathtub. Problem! How do you transport a fast growing alligator from his tank to the bathtub without getting your fingers chewed off? That is when I thought of using very heavy, lined.  leather work gloves. With my husband’s schedule so up and down on swing shift it now fell on me to transport Albert to the tub. 

I would feed him in the morning before going downstairs to take care of the kids then go upstairs to take care of Albert while they napped. The gloves worked well and Albert swam while the kids napped. He loved the tub and really enjoyed his time to swim. Then I would empty the tub and put him back in the tank just before the kids woke up. My husband exercised him on the floor when he came home from work every day. Spooky was penned in the bathroom while Albert exercised. 

Our schedules were working well and even I was enjoying have Albert for a pet.

But Albert seemed to have other ideas. He kept growing and growing until even the bathtub was getting to small for him to swim and I was having difficulty carrying him back and forth. He hung over both sides of my arms now. At least he was domesticated enough he never struggled when I held him. He never once tried to bite either of us. He seemed to be thankful just to have a home. Spooky gave him wide berth just to be safe. Albert was capable of climbing out of his tank now but he never did. Just to be safe we put a cover on the aquarium so if he did climb out we could hear the metal framed screen top hit the wooden floor. 

In a very short amount of time Albert could lay in the water on the bottom of the tub but could no longer swim. We sat down and talked long and hard about what to do with our Cayman Alligator. What do you do with a two foot long plus gator who has outgrown his tank and the bathtub? We refused to dump him in the river or anywhere in the wild. Even though threats to indigenous animals never crossed our minds we instinctively knew it should not  and would not be done.

I don’t remember which one of us though of it, but one of us thought of our local zoo.  We knew they had an alligator section from our visits there. Big question was, would they take Albert? I called the zoo the next day and they would be delighted to take Albert. We loaded him in his too small tank and took him to the zoo the following day. 

They were wonderful when we presented him to them. They assured us he would have a good life there. They would keep him in their gator “kiddy” area until he was big enough to place in the main pen. They took us to the area he would be kept with the other young gators then on to his final home.  We returned to the office and Albert was taken to his new home. While signing the papers relinquishing him to the zoo, they asked if he had a name and we told them it was  Albert. They also asked if we wanted to be given credit for donating him but we said no. A few months later we visited the zoo and found Albert had grown a lot more. They told us he would go to the main pen very soon. Years later we had moved to Florida and family had recently visited the zoo  where Albert lived. They told us there was a large sign on the wall, “Albert – donated by anonymous.” Albert was much bigger than most Caymans and was doing fine. Family members kept us informed about our relinquished pet until he finally passed away after over twenty years in the zoo. They had even put up a temporary sign announcing his death. I’m glad we found him a forever home when he outgrew us. I think of him often even after over 50 years. He has his special spot in my heart just as all our cats and dogs have but I doubt Albert is waiting at the Rainbow Bridge.