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Don and Jan Schultz awoke to the growl of their Australian cattle dog at 1:30 in the morning on June 24, quickly dismissing it as a false alarm of the overzealous guard dog protecting their house in New Iberia, La. But a few minutes later, when Panda emitted a deeper, throatier growl — a sound accompanied by a thud in the hallway — they knew an intruder was in their house.
After grabbing his Glock .40-caliber pistol from the nightstand, Don jumped out of bed to confront the intruder, closing the bedroom door and leaving Jan and Panda behind. Advancing down the hall, he noticed what he thought was a dog toy on the white rug. But as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, the object’s outline came into focus.
It was a 5-foot alligator — inches away from his big toe.
“I jumped back,” Don, 62, told The Washington Post.
The Schultzes are new to gator country, having moved from Yuma, Ariz., to New Iberia in February. But at 7 years old, Panda came to the bayou with experience defending her owners’ castle from rattlesnakes trying to slither through fences and onto the property. Because their new home lies in the heart of Cajun country and 10 miles from waters that lead to the Gulf of Mexico, Don and Jan knew they’d encounter gators from time to time but didn’t think those encounters would happen a few feet from their bedroom.
“You just don’t expect one in your house,” said Jan, 55.
Footage from a home security camera installed after the incident revealed that Panda goes outside around 1 each morning, something the Schultzes hadn’t known about. The new information leads them to believe that she did so on June 24 and that the gator followed soon after, drawn by her scent.
“Alligators really like to go after dogs … so we’re assuming that it probably was stalking her,” Don said.
At first, the gator didn’t react, at least until Don turned on a light.
“Then it puffed up and started hissing,” he said.
Don hollered to Jan, reporting the news. Knowing her husband was a practical joker, she didn’t believe him until he came back to the room with photographic proof. Don got dressed and called the sheriff’s office. The dispatcher was also skeptical when he told her his problem. Gators in the yard, on the porch — sure. But this was something she hadn’t heard of.
“She had to ask again, ‘In the house?’” Don recalled.
Five minutes later, three deputies arrived, presenting a new problem. The gator was blocking Don from answering the door. Fortunately, he’d installed an electronic keypad on the front door in the five months since moving in. He relayed his phone number to deputies through the dispatcher, and when they called, he gave them the access code for the front door.
“They showed up pretty fast,” Don said. “They all said, ‘We had to come see this.’”
About 45 minutes after Don called the sheriff’s office, a trapper working on behalf of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries arrived and lassoed the gator with a catchpole. Don filmed it all, eventually posting the footage to his YouTube channel.
Don said officials released the gator deeper into the bayou.
In the days since their alligator intruder, the Schultzes have installed a motion-activated Ring camera trained on the back door. They’ve also replaced the old doggy door with one that opens only when Panda’s electronic collar is nearby.
Jan imagined a situation in which Panda hadn’t alerted them to the alligator or had done so after the alligator had infiltrated the bedroom. Calamity. Screaming. Don probably would have shot the gator.
But it never got that far.
“I’m glad the Lord gave us a smart dog,” she said.
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Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/07/04/alligator-dog-door-louisiana/