Working in the Bayou

Last weekend Mr. Cowboy was working in Cameron, Louisiana. The Cameron Hospital needed some electrical work. The hospital has some buildings that are modular buildings. Those buildings are up on piers. When Hurricane Ike came through and surged water through Cameron, the Hospital got flooded. The water went up under the buildings and shorted out a lot of the wires. Mr. Cowboy had hooked up a generator to the hospital but it kept shorting out and tripping a breaker. So, Mr. Cowboy got called out on Sunday to go and check out the problem. Sure enough there were a lot of messed up wires under those modular buildings. That meant that Mr. Cowboy got to crawl in the Louisiana mud, up under those buildings. While Mr. Cowboy was under there he and his apprentice were greeted with this.

This is a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin. It was so nice to visit my dear husband. Theses snakes are poisonous. Mr. Cowboy's apprentice said that he never has seen Mr. Cowboy crawl so fast out from under a trailer before. I told Mr. Cowboy, "Well if it bit you at least you were at a hospital, right?" I do not think that he thought I was funny. I think I would be moving pretty quickly too. Then not 15 minutes later this one fell out of the bottom of the trailer. This was the smaller Cottonmouth Water Moccasin. I am not sure that I would qualify that as a small snake. At this point I would have had enough wild life. I might have called it a day. No more wild life for me. And there would have been no way you could have gotten me to crawl back under that trailer/hospital. But Mr. Cowboy is brave. And he wanted to get the job done. So, he went back under that hospital and started pulling more wire. But not without another visitor. Mr. Cowboy said that she came crawling under the trailer right behind him. At this point I think I would have called my boss and told him that I quit. But not Mr. Cowboy, he called animal control. The man came armed and ready. First he caught this alligator. Just look how muddy it is there. Yuck.Here she is doing her death roll. The animal control guy then jumped on her. He said she was about 7 feet long. Then he grabbed her head and tapped her mouth shut. Oh my goodness!! This is like the crocodile hunter up close and personal. I can not believe it. And this big Momma wasn't the last alligator to visit them. There was one more smaller one that just walked by. My goodness. Just walked by? I do not think I could be that casual if an alligator was "just walking by". Mr. Cowboy said that one was only about a 4 foot alligator. The animal control man told Mr. Cowboy that when Hurricane Ike came through it destroyed all of the alligators' nests. Now all the alligators are pushed out of their nests and trying to fine food. Well, I would feel a lot better if the alligators would over look my skinny husband and find themselves some fat snakes or something.

While driving home that night Mr. Cowboy was talking to me on the phone. He was telling his apprentice to look out the window at all the red eyes. He was telling him that all those red eyes were the alligators. Then he said, "Oh Crap!! I just ran over an alligator!!" I didn't believe him and told him that he probably should go so he didn't hit any more wildlife. Two days after all this Mr. Cowboy was looking at his truck because something wasn't running right and you will never guess what he found up under the hood.

Oh yeah, that would be an alligator jaw. The top part. Complete with teeth. And with guts. The Cowpokes were all over this alligator jaw. They think their Dad is so very cool. Their Dad ran over an alligator. Big Cowpoke had to have his picture taken with the jaw. Mr. Cowboy even extracted some teeth so the boys could have them, to keep.
I liked the tiny alligator nostrils. Poor alligator. What a way to go. I do hope that the alligators can rebuild their nests and move back into the wild. I really did not realize we had so many alligators down here. I will have to be a bit more careful walking around the ditches. And now Mr. Cowboy's story of how Bear might have gotten eaten by an alligator is not so far fetched. I am glad Mr. Cowboy is done risking his life, and limbs in Cameron.