Saturday, May 04, 2019

Dave's here!

I'm at Malice Domestic today, swilling coffee and canoodling with books in the book room.
Meeting clients and editors too.

In place of any pithy words of wisdom, here is Dave:



Dave


Since my beloved kitties are no longer with me I thought I’d send a photo of my friend’s alligator, Dave. My friend has the space to keep such “pets” for the local wildlife center until they have room, if ever.
Last month some miscreant dumped this poor fellow in Lake Michigan will his mouth taped shut. Luckily a fisherman found him and brought him to shore. After that rescue made the news, someone else dumped a smaller baby alligator at the center. So my friend now has two gators. Dave is named after his rescuer and is almost four feet long. Needless to say, Dave doesn’t like to be pet.
On the other hand, he might enjoy it if you tried.
on the other hand indeed.
Isn't he a handsome fellow?




What the title of this blog post refers to.




13 comments:

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

When I was a wee-child my grandmother had a pet alligator named Ozzy. Ozzy was a little guy and the absolute hit of our big family. He lived for a long time. Once he passed away he was laid to rest in a large jar of formaldehyde and placed on a shelf in the pantry. I never thought it odd that when I raided the pantry for Oreos or a bag of Wise, Ozzy was there to keep an eye on things.

nightsmusic said...

I'm so glad Dave's here! Man's inhumanity to animals is something I'll never understand. Thank goodness someone found Dave.

Cheech and Chong...In my wild and crazy days, my Thursday nights used to consist of Monty Python, The Goodies and to finish the night, a C&C album...with a little toking to enhance the evening. ;)

I hope you're canoodling with some really good books!

Theresa said...

We didn't get to keep our alligator for as long as 2Ns's family. When we were all little, my dad brought one home, given to him by someone at work. My mother put it in the laundry tub in the basement, but it wasn't long before it went off to the zoo. To this day, I hesitate before looking into a laundry tub.

NLiu said...

Dave is gorgeous. What a smile!

2NNs "my grandmother had a pet alligator" just knocked me for six. I want to see her in a children's book! Though maybe the bit about the gator being pickled might not be errrr... marketable.

Steve Stubbs said...

Re yesterday's post, Leslie said... "I assume religion in fiction becomes a problem when it's barely disguised proselytizing, lecturing, etc."

It's called Inspirational Fiction or Christian Fiction. I would not read it, but there must be a market for it. If that is what you are writing, check the agent preferences.

Leslie said... "The list of what gets a terse "No, thank you" is a lot like a list of how we'd describe someone with serious anti﷓social tendencies. If you're a (relatively) sane person who possesses some social skills, you're likely not doing anything on this list."

Ms. Reid is the only one who knows for sure, but I suspect there is some subtlety in the post. Lots of women publish sexual autobiographies. I am too lazy to check the title on my bookshelf, but I believe one is titled FAST GIRL (by a track athlete who is "fast" amd am athlete in more ways than one.) Another is GIRL WITH A ONE TRACK MIND. and so on. Like Ms. Reid I am not interested in reading this stuff from "young men" and suspect it is one of the large and rapidly growing number of categories restricted to women only. Blindly venturing into women only territory is ignorant of publishing's esoteric rules, but not antisocial.

The MEMOIRS of Jacques Casanova is an exception. It is widely regarded as the most extraordinary autobiographical masterpiece ever written, largely because of his account of his escape from the Inquisition prison in Venice. If you can write THAT well the rules are that there are no rules. Scribble on.

Dena Pawling said...


Several months ago I read Cheech Marin's memoir. Read by the author! It was interesting as well as funny.

Looks like Dave's found himself in a good place. Glad he's "here".

Enjoy Malice Domestic!

Anonymous said...

Dave is indeed one of the handsomer gators I've ever seen ... Which is not saying much, but still ...

Until I clicked on the Cheech and Chong link, I was thinking of Dave the bitter mad scientist octopus from Penguins of Madagascar.

As for me & my son, it has been all we can do to keep a couple of goldfish alive.

Lennon Faris said...

Hi, Dave! He is handsome.

Craig F said...

Hi, Dave, nice to meet you.

You do realize that I have a few questions?

I don't think that you are really a gator. I spent my morning with some spectacular fellows that I know are gators. It is coming on their mating season here. They are riding high in the water trying to look spiffy for some female. kind of a mating dance.

None of them have the coloration that you do, their snouts are a bit different too. You are a firmly filled out fellow for being 4 feet long. 4 foot gators are usually pretty skinny, mainly because of the ten to twelve males looking for a female.

I believe that you are a speculated caiman. Selling their babies on the interweb is a major form of income for some South American people.

Claire Bobrow said...

Whatever you are, handsome Dave, you did not deserve to be dumped in Lake Michigan with your mouth taped shut. As Amy Krouse Rosenthal said: "I wish you more."

Panda in Chief said...

There is no way I am letting Dave sleep on the bed, no matter what he is. If, in fact, he is a "he" how do you tell with gators, anyway? I agree with Craig, who speculated Dave might be a caiman. Anyway. Dave is NOT allowed on the furniture!

Morgan Hazelwood said...

With his MOUTH taped shut? The poor thing! :(

AJ Blythe said...

On my first day of work experience at a wildlife park (I was 15 years old), I was told to brush the crocodiles' teeth. Being nervous and wanting to impress I had no idea what to do. I knew they didn't mean the adult crocs (that's a death wish - they were salties!) but there were young crocs about a foot long (still dangerous). Did they mean them? So I hesitated, most likely with a look of panic on my face. The owner was delighted and he roared with laughter. I know I went the background colour of this blog and spent my week at the park living it down.