[Beach_Babe]

So that's what my first instinct was ... to frantically search myself. In my terrified mind, it never occurred to me to call the police.

Same thing recently happened to me. I was talking on the phone while minding my six-year old grandson. When I got off the phone he wasn't in the house. We have a seven acre piece of property which backs a lake. I checked the bathrooms and porches, ran around the yard and headed to the lake...yelling his name the entire time. I was frantic! Then I headed to his house...which is on the other side of the same property...to enlist his mom's help in the search. I found him there, quietly eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He said he was hungry, didn't want to disrupt my phone call, so went home on his own to get lunch.

I wasn't fearful that a stranger got him...we are at the end of a dirt road...no one can get on the property without being noticed...but we do have gators. Here's a photo of my mom and a neighbor with one we caught last night...

[JudyB1938]

Thank you for your post, because I was feeling a belated guilt that I didn't think to call the police 40 years ago. Of course, there was no such thing in 911 in those days.

Do you get to eat that gator? Yummm! :0)

[the Deejay]

OMGOSH! Where DO you live???? LOL!!

[mommya]

Wow that's some gator - sounds like you have some cool property too.

Anyway - your statement - "I wasn't fearful that a stranger got him." - that's how I'd feel. I think that would be my last thought - after a lot of other things - unless I had some reason to be suspicoius of that - like I had seen some stranger parked on my lane recently - or if I'd heard the child speak of a strange person lately or something - or if there were signs of a struggle where the child should be.

[dread78645]

... but we do have gators.

Way too many years ago, my brother caught one about 4' long. We put it in the bath tub, gators are neat stuff when you're 12 yrs old !

'course when dad got home from work, he didn't think so, and made us take it back to the canal.

;(

[juzcuz]

Once I lived in Lake Charles, La., in a raised house on the bayou, we had a bridge from the house to the waters edge. One day I was standing on the bridge and saw something white floating in the water, I thought it was debris from run off, but with a closer look the white thing was swaying in the bayou and coming toward me. I ran up stairs, finally found my binoculars, ran back down stairs and across the bridge to see the hind spines of this white something. It was a White Alligator, it appeared to be about 8Ft.long. After seeing that, I became very watchful of my dog.