Gator wrangler has answers on unwanted porch pest

Texas resident Jody White was returning from a weeklong fishing trip Monday when he and his girlfriend, Tami Tanner, came home to a frightening visitor waiting on his porch.

Tanner didn’t notice the 8-foot-long alligator sitting near the front door until it was at her feet. The gator hissed and swung its tail around, striking the startled Tanner in the knee and knocking her to the ground.

White, who was waiting for the garage door to open, raced to pick up Tanner and put her back in his truck.

“Her eye was swelling up real bad from the fall,” he said, “so I called her an ambulance and she went to the hospital.”

The sudden appearance of the large reptile was a mystery to White, who lives in the middle of a Humble-area subdivision. White guessed the alligator could’ve come from a drain pit or Jesse Jones Park and Nature Center, which is more than a mile from his house.

Enter alligator wrangler Timothy DeRamus.

With the help of local deputies, DeRamus managed to capture the unwanted guest. DeRamus said he wrangles about 250 alligators a year around Houston, all alive, and always takes them to Gator Country, a wildlife rescue service in Beaumont. DeRamus said he wasn’t surprised the gator made it that far into a subdivision.

“Right now, it’s peak breeding season; and in nighttime, the alligators travel around looking for mates, and they get disoriented,” he said. “It probably ended up on somebody’s property hidden in a flowerbed for a couple of days and then, when the sun got hot, he went looking for shade and went directly under his porch.”

DeRamus added that the alligator was only acting out of fear when it hissed and struck Tanner, who ended up being OK.

“The alligator was actually cornered in the front entryway, and she didn’t even know it was there,” DeRamus said. “She surprised the gator and he surprised her. She jumped and he flinched, (so) he flung his tail around for protection. He was basically saying ‘Hey, you’re in my area, you’re too close.’ ”

Despite their scary appearance, alligators don’t normally just run up and start mauling people with their teeth. “She scared the gator just as much as the gator scared her. They’re not attack animals.”

Jody White An 8-foot alligator was found on a porch in the Houston area. It was taken to Gator Country, a wildlife sanctuary in Beaumont.