The saga continues. Today some reptile rescue folks came down from St.Louis to take charge of the turtles, tortoises, snakes, and gators. They were surprised to find that the reported "six-foot alligators" were actually six feet long. Usually they find that reports of reptile size tend to be seriously exaggerated… but not this time.
Apparently, animal control decided to leave the large alligators in their shelving in the damaged truck, unlike all the smaller animals that had been moved indoors. When they went to retrieve them they found a cat who had been hiding the whole time. Also, raccoon number two decided to come in to roost.
The reptile guys are members of the St.Louis Herpetological society, and do this as a hobby. You can tell that this man is comfortable with an iguana, and the feeling appears to be mutual. So that's all good.
The other gentleman asserts that this snake is not a really big one, and I'm sure they come bigger. The local yokels all feel that it qualifies as large, however.
So now we just have to get the dogs situated. Big Brownie doesn't feel well (which dates from before the fire), so she'll be getting some blood tests and so forth tomorrow to see if we can run down the problem. So far I've just given them Capstar for fleas, and dewormed for hookworms and roundworms. The other three are eating well and seem to feel fine. Still no word on how the Alligator Man is doing. I hope that his burns are not as severe as reported.
Poor creatures. Hope that when he recovers, the Alligator Man isn’t ticked off that his pets are gone.