Miami New Times | Dave Jacobs

Alligator Found Lounging On Family's Alligator Pool Float At Airbnb

Updated September 8, 2021

In many cases, there's a nice balance to the pros and cons of living in certain climates.

For instance, I don't know how I felt about living in a cold area as a kid, but it was certainly reassuring to learn about deadly scorpions, spiders, and snakes only to hear, "It's too cold for them up here."

So, while the warmer areas of this country may seem like the envy of the rest of the country when there's a cold snap going around, they also come with an interesting gallery of wildlife to deal with.

And sometimes, they can get surprisingly comfortable with our presence.

Depending on your location, you may find alligators a fairly common sight if you spend enough time in Florida.

Reddit | Armyless

Although this doesn't necessarily mean you should expect to see an alligator every time you open the door to get the mail, there's also no guarantee that you won't.

And that's a reality that surprised one family while they were on vacation.

When Dave Jacobs traveled to Florida with his family, he found a nice Airbnb in South Miami.

Reddit | Armyless

As the Miami New Times reported, the Georgia residents were in town for a wedding, but theirs wasn't the only special visit to go down that day.

On Saturday, Jacobs' family happened to spot an alligator swimming around in a nearby lake.

Reddit | AnimalEncounters

Jacobs said they thought it was pretty cute, especially since their dog seemed less than impressed by it.

At least, that's usually how you interpret it when the dog spends all day barking at it through the fenced-in pool deck.

Reddit | mac_is_crack

From the way it was carrying on and running around, they suspected that the alligator might have been trying to taunt it.

However, it seemed to have other ideas in mind.

Miami New Times | Dave Jacobs

By the next day, it had reappeared in their pool and definitely seemed to enjoy hanging out on the inflatable alligator they had brought.

As Jacobs told the Miami New Times, "My daughter, who’s 14, was like, 'Dad, this is soooo meta.'"

But as funny as the visual was, they didn't ignore the fact that a wild and potentially dangerous animal was on the premises.

Reddit | jimmycthatsme

So they called the Airbnb's owner, who got into contact with a wildlife management service.

They sent an alligator wrangler who got the reptile out, but also told them that he had been on many similar calls lately because it's alligator mating season.

Still, what was just a daily routine for the wrangler was a big deal for the Jacobs family.

Reddit | BigAl2525

As Jacobs said, "I guess it's not that unusual, but it was unusual to me."

Part of the reason was that, although they had seen alligators in Georgia, they usually appeared in isolated swamps and other remote areas rather than in the middle of neighborhoods.

h/t: Miami New Times

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