There’s a subtle and not negligible psychological difference between seeing a wild Animal in a reserve, park or at the zoo and stumbling upon it while jogging down the street, a few Meters from home.

Now when the wild animal at issue is a rather ‘biting’ one such as this Gator, one should at least be scared to death. This is what I thought before this close encounter. Truth is different, of course I was quite far (pictures taken with the 70-200 on a full frame, at 200mm except the last one at 80mm). Still, no sense of danger and incipient life threaten: reminds me of our friend Greg who told us, during a dinner, how he became friend with a gator who used to pass by the bayou in front of his house and rest a few meters from the fence.

Now, for those of you who spent some time with use before we left for Houston, you perfectly know how much one of us (Marta) was terrified at the idea of having such neighbors… see below her frightened face while sitting a few meters away from the gator!

Bottom line: you don’t know it till you lived it!