Glad to hear it. Now convince the people in Hilton Head.
'Darling, there's an alligator at the door'
By BARRY WIGMORE, Daily Mail
Last updated at 22:19 13 June 2006
Robert Loretta and his wife Roslyn had just sat down to dinner of a nice barbecued teryaki chicken when the knock came at the front door.
'Guess who's coming to dinner?' Mrs Loretta joked as she got up to answer the door.
The hammering grew louder, so luckily she looked out of the peep-hole, as she often does, before opening up - and saw
a 6ft alligator scrambling up the wall as though it was trying to ring the bell.
The alligator caused quite a commotion when it went calling just before sunset in sleepy Penny Creek Drive.
Mr and Mrs Loretta first noticed it in the lake behind their house in Sun City, a holiday resort on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
They were barbecueing on the back porch as it sunned itself on the bank of the lake, mouth wide-open, eyes staring at the chicken as it sniffed the succulent aroma.
'It was smelling the food, I guess,' Mrs Loretta told her local newspaper, the Island Packet. The Lorettas took their dinner indoors to eat, which was a lucky decision as it turned out.
They next noticed the alligator in a flanking move as it crept along the side of their house.
It went into the road, crossed the street, and settled down by a neighbour's mailbox as residents crept out to take a peek at the greedy visitor.
But the alligator became restless as the crowd grew and people started taking pictures. It ran back across the street - straight into the Lorettas' garage.
By now growing angry, it came out again and scurried round to the front door where, once more facing a dead-end, it began hammering on the woodwork.
Mrs Loretta said: 'When I looked out
its left front claw was right by the bell push and it looked just as though it was trying to ring the doorbell.'
Neighbour Richard Holinski, who was
taking photos with a long lens from about 10 yards away, said: 'By this time he looked pretty mad. If he had turned around, I'd be gone in a hurry.'
Eventually the alligator did turn round. It raced to the side of the house, sniffed the friendly smell of water from the familiar lagoon behind the house, and dived in.
Mr Holinski said: 'It took off like a rocket.' By the time guards from a local security company arrived the only thing left was some dirt and a few scales that came off the creature's rough skin as it hammered on the door.
Wildlife biologist Dean Harrigal of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said: `You get oddball behaviour from alligators at this time of year.
`There's been little rain for months and the lakes are real low, so they're on the move a lot looking for deeper water.
'Certainly the smell of teryaki chicken had something to do with this. Alligators have special organs in their snouts that give them a great sense of smell.'
Residents in the southern US where alligators are prevalent are warned to be especially alert for them at this time of year - and never to feed them because it makes them lose their natural fear of humans. There have been a number of attacks in recent weeks.
Mrs Loretta said: 'It won't stop us barbecueing, but we'll certainly be extra careful in future.
'Darling, there's an alligator at the door' | Mail Online