Jonathan Ellsworth | Interesting Thing

I was born and raised on a cattle ranch in the small town of Show Low, Arizona. I grew up around animals and hunted some throughout my teen years, so you could say I have been around my share of animals. I have wrestled calves to the ground and tamed young horses, but nothing compares to the time I did battle with a gator.
I know what you’re thinking. “I thought this fool said he came from Arizona?” I can tell you you’re right. I did say that. You are also correct in assuming there are no indigenous gator species in that state. I can also tell you that my face to face encounter didn’t happen at the Phoenix Zoo. That would be cool to say I was part of an interactive zoo program, and I mean interactive. So, if I wasn’t the only alligator rancher in the state of Arizona, and I wasn’t saving zoo patrons from a wild, ravenous, man eating reptile, where does a hick from the sticks get his hands on a gator? I guess I could have found gators in Florida, but since I was already in Venezuela at the time it seemed as good a place as any.
I spent two years in Venezuela. Most of that time was spent in small rural towns on the eastern side of the country. I met some real neat families. They were generous and fun loving. The Aguilarte family had a particularly good sense of humor, so when the husband asked if I wanted to go out behind there house and see an alligator, I thought he was joking. I was willing to play along and walked outside to the back of the house. It was a good thing the family didn’t speak English because I probably cussed when I turned the corner and came face to face with a man eater. Well maybe he was in a small tank. And at four feet he probably hadn’t tasted his first human, but I am sure he could have eaten a rabbit and therefore my hand. Senor Aguilarte asked me if I wanted to hold the beast, and being a brave young man, I said sure. I was shaking like a leaf. After they took a picture of me and my new reptilian friend, I was all too happy to return him to the tank. I found out a week later that the alligator jumped out of the tank and escaped into the jungle to eat little kids, I mean never to be heard from again.