I have recently been visiting with family friends in Mississippi. A few days ago, I went with one of my friends on a swamp tour in Slidell, Louisiana.

The tour boat cruised through the swamp.

We saw several alligators. I’ve always thought of alligators as looking like the one above. This alligator is about five feet long.

We fed him hot dogs on the end of a stick.

Chomp! Ahh, he’s so cute!

I had not previously realized that alligators can also get really big. The alligator above is about ten feet long.

By way of coincidence, an alligator ripped off a teenager’s arm in Florida that night. It was all over the news.

The victim, Kasey Edwards, said the alligator stopped attacking him after he gouged it in the eyes. As he was swimming away he noticed he was missing his arm.

The alligator was reported to be 11 and a 1/2 feet long.

This is the 12-foot gator I saw during my swamp tour. Yes, that thing is definitely big enough to remove an arm.

Raaaauuugghhrrrr!!

You can see more photos from my recent travels on my Flickr page.