Gator on the Loose!

by Sue Stauffacher

  It looked so real. Wen had even drawn in the scales. Admiring their artwork, Keisha said, “Now maybe people will think about it. Alligators get big just like little boys do.”

  “And girls,” Aaliyah reminded Keisha.

  “I’m so proud of all of you,” Mama said, brushing away the eraser crumbs. “Little by little, the bird builds its nest. Now maybe we have helped the poor alligators by showing others what a big job caring for a baby alligator can become.”

  “It’s almost finished …” Keisha wasn’t sure what, but there was still something missing. She knew it was true that these big alligators were once so small, but it was hard to imagine that even Pumpkin-Petunia could have fit between the ends of a ruler as a baby.

  “This alligator looks big, like the alligators you see in the zoo. But how would you know the cute little baby gator you’re thinking about buying is going to grow big like this?”

  Daddy and Razi and the baby arrived home from the park, just as they were putting the finishing touches on the poster.

  As soon as Razi saw them in the kitchen, he said, “Look what I got, everybody.” He was holding up one of the little airplanes they sold by the lemonade stands for a quarter. Razi launched his plane and it landed—ping!—on the kitchen table. Everyone looked up at once, shifting the drawing.

  “Razi!” the children cried out in unison. Razi stuck out his lip.

  “I miss Pumpkin-Petunia,” he said. “I want an alligator to play with.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Razi.” Grandma had been trying to draw an alligator toenail. When the paper moved, her pencil slipped. “We don’t have enough bathtubs!”

  “Just a baby, then. I’ll keep him in the sink.”

  Keisha looked at the plane lying near the bottom of the poster. “You’ve done it again, Razi! That’s what this poster needs—a drawing of a little alligator at the bottom so people can see the difference. Most people have seen a grown-up alligator at the zoo or on TV, but not a baby one. And maybe, maybe—”

  “We could put a couple other ideas of things they could buy from the Reptile Shack that wouldn’t get big,” Wen said. She must have been excited because Wen never interrupted.

  “Yes, that’s perfect!” Keisha said. It helped to give positive choices. “A little gecko or a salamander would be a better pet.”

  “I want a gecko or a salamander!” Razi said. “Please, Mama!”

  “You know we don’t own pets, little one. We have animals out back right now. Go visit them.”

  “But I want one that stays.”

  This conversation had been going on for so long that everyone knew what Mama would say (“Then you better find us another profession”) and then what Razi would say (“I would keep it in my bedroom and you wouldn’t even see it”) and then what Grandma would say (“That’s a serving of wind pudding with a topping of air sauce”).

  Every once in a while, Keisha would question Mama’s rule, testing what it would really mean to have an animal stay instead of go. She knew it wasn’t very practical to have an alligator as a pet, but some people did it. And now that she had experience …

  Aaliyah was writing furiously on her tablet.

  “But where can we sell the posters?” Zack asked.

  “Maybe door to door like with World’s Finest Chocolate?” Zeke suggested. Their 4-H Wild 4-Ever Club had done a fund-raiser like that last year.

  Aaliyah kept writing with her left hand and put her finger up with her right. This meant she was about to say something market-savvy.

  Zeke sighed. Sometimes it took a while for Aaliyah’s bright ideas to emerge, and everyone was supposed to stay quiet until she finished.

  This time, however, it didn’t take long. “Well, since Wen suggested the Reptile Shack, maybe they would sell them there. But I was also thinking … the Hollyhock Parade. We could sell them at the picnic.”

  Keisha moved closer to see what Aaliyah was drawing. Every year on the Fourth of July, hundreds of neighbors gathered to celebrate and cheer for the local children on their decorated bicycles.

  Aaliyah held up her picture. “We can decorate the Red Rider Wagon like an alligator float.”

  “Wait a minute,” Zack said. “How does making your wagon look like an alligator sell posters?”

  But Keisha followed Aaliyah’s thinking. Sometimes she could picture things in her mind, and then all she had to do was work backward, step by step, to make them happen. The Hollyhock Parade was perfect. Kids sold all sorts of stuff at the picnic afterward—the toys they didn’t want or the bead jewelry they made, and once Razi even sold rocks he’d found by the side of the road. Razi was a good salesman.

  “We can do it at the kids’ bazaar afterward,” Keisha said. “Razi can be our salesperson.”

  “Are we going to sell alligators, too?” Razi asked. “The baby ones? Can I have one?”

  Keisha, Aaliyah and Wen gave each other the LBL (Little-Brother Look), which was when you made your eyes very wide and then rolled them. Aaliyah was an only child, but Wen had a baby brother, too, between Paulo’s and Razi’s ages. Keisha kept telling her, “Just wait.”

  But right after the LBL, Keisha snuck a look at Mama. Maybe, just maybe, if they rescued another alligator as a baby, Keisha could take care of it until it was so big it needed to go to the alligator sanctuary. That would take a couple of years.

  But Mama was all about business. “I saw a pattern for an alligator costume. If I sew a big one, Razi can use it for Halloween.”

  “I want alligator swimming goggles.” Razi jumped up and down. “Standard-issue!”

  “Let me see that drawing, Aaliyah,” Mama said. “I’ll put it on the refrigerator and give this idea time to grow.”

  “Well, it better not grow in alligator time.” Grandma got up from her chair. “We only have a few weeks. Besides, I have to get to my yoga class.”

  Grandma liked to learn something new every year. This year, she’d spotted an ad in On-the-Town magazine for a class called Yoga You Can Do.

  Mama sat down next to Aaliyah.

  Keisha took Grandma’s chair and studied the poster. She put her hand over Mama’s. “You never know. There might be a baby alligator out there right now who needs us to help it find a home before winter.”

  How do you keep track of the days during summer vacation? After seventeen visits to the public pool, six visits to the library, twenty games of hip-hopscotch and four bicycle rides to Millennium Park to get rainbow sherbet push-ups, it was Fourth of July and time for Alger Heights’ annual Hollyhock Parade.

  It didn’t happen exactly the way Keisha had pictured it in her mind.

  No. It was even better.

  Mama sewed alligator costumes for Razi and baby Paulo. Paulo sat in the wagon, and Razi ran alongside making alligator vocalizations. He carried a posterboard sign taped on a stick that said I’M A FIVE-YEAR-OLD ALLIGATOR.

  Daddy ran behind Razi holding his tail so it wouldn’t trip him. When that didn’t work, he gave the sign to Keisha and picked Razi up so he could wave his arms and legs like an alligator. Keisha was embarrassed because she was clearly bigger than a five-year-old alligator, but she held the sign up high so people would get the idea.

  Zeke and Zack stayed on either side of the wagon in case Paulo decided to climb out, and Keisha pulled it. People laughed and called Daddy the human float.

  Even though he had to put an ice pack on his lower back for the rest of the day, he said it was worth it because Carters’ Urban Rescue got $127 in donations for the alligator sanctuary at the picnic.

  But the best part came after Keisha overheard an argument between Razi and his classmate Marco Brown. She was sitting on the swings, sipping the last little bit of her lemon ice, when Marco rushed by with the alligator head of Razi’s costume.

  “Give it,” Razi was calling after him. “I’m telling my daddy.”

  Mama, who’d just finished a sale of four posters to Ms. Tellerico, the principal at their school, reached out and g
rabbed Razi by the collar.

  Marco stopped running, too, and said, “So? My daddy is bigger than your daddy.”

  “Is not. My daddy is bigger than your daddy.” Razi buried his head in Mama’s dress.

  Marco was running back to Razi, but then he saw Mama and stopped quick.

  “My daddy is bigger than a full-sized alligator!” Razi shouted, holding Mama tight.

  “Boys! That’s not how we talk,” Ms. Tellerico said in her principal voice. “Use your words in a nice way and save all that alligator knowledge for science lab.” Ms. Tellerico held out her hand for the alligator head, which Marco handed over.

  “Now come over here and meet my nephew. Jack, this is Marco and Razi.”

  Jack was holding on to a leash that ended somewhere under the sale table. Out rolled a fluffy puppy at the end of the leash.

  “A puppy!” Razi said. “Mama, I want a puppy!” Razi bent down, and the puppy jumped up and gave him puppy kisses. Razi was a messy eater. The puppy had a lot to lick.

  Marco sat down cross-legged. He knew what he had to do to get a turn with the puppy. Daddy came around from the sale table and sat next to Marco.

  Puppies could do that, Keisha thought as she watched Razi go from near tears to giggling as he held the puppy.

  “Can I have a turn?” Marco asked.

  Jack leaned down and took the wiggling bundle in his hands. “You have to hold it like this,” he said, showing the kids how to support the puppy’s legs. Keisha had already learned that with Alphabet Soup, but she didn’t say so.

  “Can we have a puppy, Mama? Please?” Razi begged. “I’ll keep it in my bedroom. You won’t even have to see it!”

  “Puppies don’t belong in the bedroom. They need to be watched,” Mama said sternly.

  “My sister has a crate in the kitchen,” Ms. Tellerico said. “That’s where Penny sleeps.”

  “Yes,” Mama agreed. She put her hand on Daddy’s shoulder, and he looked up at her. “Puppies have to sleep in a crate.”

  Oooh, this was something Keisha would have to remember. Mama didn’t say yes, but Mama didn’t say no, either.

  And when Mama didn’t say no, that left a tiny little space for a possibility to grow. Maybe not for a baby alligator. That possibility was too big for the space between Mama’s yes and Mama’s no.

  But maybe for something furry and fluffy, something small and … puppy?

  FROM THE FILES OF CARTERS’ URBAN RESCUE

  Alligator Fact File

  • Alligators belong to a family of reptiles called crocodilians. Crocodiles and alligators are very similar, and are the last living reptiles dating back to the dinosaurs. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that alligators have a wider snout that packs more crushing power for small prey like turtles, while crocodiles have a narrower, longer snout that is better for catching fish and mammals.

  • About one foot long at birth, alligators grow a foot or so every year until they reach adulthood at about seven years of age if they are given proper nutrition.

  • Female alligators grow to be 6 to 9 feet in length, while male alligators reach 12 to 15 feet when they are full-grown (the longest measured alligator was over 19 feet!). They live to be about 30 years old in the wild and up to 50 years, or longer in rare cases, in captivity.

  • Most alligators in captivity are smaller than normal because they don’t live in proper-sized cages and aren’t fed a complete diet.

  • Experts estimate that there are several thousand captive alligators living in northern states. The hatchlings are easy to find locally or, if that’s illegal, on the Internet.

  • If you Google “Gator on the Loose,” you’ll see plenty of news stories and videos from around the country about escaped pet alligators.

  WHATEVER THE DILEMMA, IF IT’S GOT FUR OR FEATHERS (OR SCALES!) THE CARTERS ARE THE ONES TO CALL!

  FROM THE DESK OF SUE STAUFFACHER

  Dear Readers,

  I got the idea for an alligator in the city pool because we really did have a three-foot alligator running around one of our southeast-side neighborhoods on Labor Day weekend in 2007. A courageous young woman coaxed it into a cat carrier with a broom. As you know from reading the story, zoos are not set up to take in orphaned animals but to help out in a pinch. Dan Malone, the animal management supervisor at John Ball Zoo here in Grand Rapids, offered to take the alligator home. During the TV coverage, however, the alligator’s owner called to ask for it back. While he was moving, the alligator had escaped from a box.

  My plan all along was for the children in Gator on the Loose! to have a bake sale to raise the money to mail the alligator to a sanctuary in the southeastern United States. But when I did my research, I found out that that wasn’t realistic. If rain forest frogs cost several hundred dollars to transport, can you imagine how much a three-foot alligator would cost? That’s a lot of cupcakes and brownies! What could I do?

  Then I read about an alligator sanctuary right here in Michigan. It’s true! The Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary is located in a former farm field in Athens, a town about an hour and a half south of my home. Owners David and Carmen Critchlow used to keep their rescued alligators in their basement. Now forty-five alligators live in the sanctuary, which operates on proceeds from ticket and gift-shop sales, as well as donations. It’s a strange sight to be driving through farm country and see a sign that says, “Live Alligators on Display.”

  But that’s why we writers say that truth can be stranger than fiction.

  I was so thrilled to discover this sanctuary because now my story could have a realistic happy ending. When we visited, I “adopted” two alligators and so got to name them—Pumpkin and Petunia, of course.

  Visit the Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary on the Web at www.alligatorsanctuary.com.

  Happy reading!

  Sue

  Acknowledgments

  I am especially indebted to my longtime editor, Nancy Hinkel, for asking me to propose a book idea I thought kids would enjoy. Assistant editor Allison Wortche worked closely with Nancy and me to shape the characters and plot. My agent Wendy Schmalz’s support also proved indispensable. In addition to these wonderful people, a whole team of super-creative people at Random House, including the designer, Sarah Hokanson, as well as illustrator Priscilla Lamont, worked hard to create this beautiful book. Thank you!

  About the Author

  Sue Stauffacher lives with her husband and sons in a 150-plus-year-old farmhouse in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Over the years, possums, bats, raccoons, mice, squirrels, crows, ducks, woodchucks, chipmunks, voles, skunks, bunnies, and a whole bunch of other critters have lived on the property. Though Sue is not a rehabilitator herself, she is passionate about helping kids know what to do when the wild meets the child.

  Sue’s novels for young readers include Harry Sue, Donutheart, and Donuthead, which Kirkus Reviews called “touching, funny, and—gloriously human” in a starred review. Her most recent picture book, Nothing but Trouble, won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work—Children. Besides writing children’s books, Sue is a frequent visitor to schools as a speaker and literacy consultant, drawing on two decades of experience as a journalist, educator, and program administrator. To learn more about Sue and her books, visit her on the Web at www.suestauffacher.com.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2010 by Sue Stauffacher

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Priscilla Lamont

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Stauffacher, Sue.

  Gator on the loose! / by Sue Stauffacher ; illustrated by Priscilla Lamont. — 1st ed.

  p. cm. — (Animal Rescue Team)

  Summary: Chaos ensues when Keisha’s father brings an escaped alligator home to

  Carters’ Urban Rescue, but it gets out of the bathroom while Grandma is

  guarding it.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89539-5

  [1. Alligators—Fiction. 2. Animal rescue—Fiction. 3. Family life—Fiction.

  4. Racially mixed people—Fiction.] I. Lamont, Priscilla, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.S8055Gat 2010

  [Fic]—dc22

  2009018340

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

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