# Cat vs. gator **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 15, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790 "2010-11-15T22:09:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/1 "2010-11-15T22:09:31Z")
[Amazing video!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sAF8gMN9c0) I like to think that any one of my cats . . . past, present and future . . . could do this. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/2 "2010-11-15T22:25:32Z")
If I was there, you’d hear me shrieking to throw a rock at the gator before the cat, or kid, got eaten. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/3 "2010-11-16T00:16:02Z")
Got to wonder just WTF those people were thinking. One chomp, and Kitty is off to Valhalla. A split second later, Kid-0 becomes gator bait. Gators are fast, tough, and mean. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/4 "2010-11-16T00:34:20Z")
The cat recognized a pussy when it saw one. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/5 "2010-11-16T00:44:10Z")
I thought gators were pretty shy. Crocodiles are the mean ones. Not that it seems there was a lot they could have done about corralling the kitty. This cat was NOT backing down. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/6 "2010-11-16T00:48:07Z")
Are alligators a protected species in Louisiana? I’d have wanted to shoot them in they were around my pets and family. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/7 "2010-11-16T01:11:25Z")
Not any more, I don’t think. There’s a show on History Channel about people that hunt them. I’ve eaten gator meat. It…isn’t good. Gators used to be on the endangered species list, I think. They rebounded in amazing numbers. I’ve read stories from Florida about them eating pets and such. I’ve also encountered them in the wild many times. Once when my fishing lure was hung on what I thought was a log…until the “log” opened it’s mouth. One click slash with my fishing knife to cut the line as Dad backed us the hell away. We decided Mr. Gator could keep my beetle spin. Even if it was one with the hard to find at the time oddly-blue tail that the crappie were biting. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/8 "2010-11-16T01:48:53Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Got to wonder just WTF those people were thinking. One chomp, and Kitty is off to Valhalla. A split second later, Kid-0 becomes gator bait. Gators are fast, tough, and mean. If you listen to the audio, it’s clear that the cats didn’t belong to the people filming the video. I’d probably film it too if I saw a cat standing down a gator, with the hopes I could get some slo-mo predation footage to sell to National Geopraphic. The guy who somehow let the 2nd gator get behind him - he was crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/9 "2010-11-16T02:13:19Z")
I was more concerned about the kid being that close to a gator. Even if these were supposedly “tame” gators, that strikes me as…not wise. That gator could have maimed the kid before any adult could have intervened. That said, I’d have probably made some effort to scoop up Warrior Kitty whether it was mine or not. Bast didn’t make her children to feed reptiles. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/10 "2010-11-16T02:31:16Z")
Wouldn’t scooping up kitty have entailed getting _really_ close to the gator? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/11 "2010-11-16T03:18:44Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Are alligators a protected species in Louisiana? I’d have wanted to shoot them in they were around my pets and family. One got after a guy’s poodle in Southern Arkansas. Guy shot it 75 times with a .22. Pissed the gator off. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/12 "2010-11-16T03:23:51Z")
Yipes! I was relieved when the 'gator retreated, but then it came back . . . WITH BACKUP! I thought for sure the kitty’s name would soon be “snack.” Yaay kitty! But had I been there I would have been in the next county over by then. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/13 "2010-11-16T06:47:00Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Wouldn’t scooping up kitty have entailed getting _really_ close to the gator? Yeah…but I’m an adult, and entitled to take stupid chances. Besides which, I know a gal even more semi-druidic than me, and video of me saving kitty from the gator would possibly get me…sweaty naked fun time with her. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/14 "2010-11-16T06:55:27Z")
I didn’t think that was going to go well at all. Who doped the gators? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/15 "2010-11-16T06:58:01Z")
Animals seem to have a pretty good sense of what other animals they can confront, and exactly how far they can push them. That cat acted like he knew what he was doing. Gators are fast, but maybe they both knew that the cat could be a little faster. Trying to save that cat may have been just the distraction the gator needed to chomp on him. That said, if I had a cat and lived in alligator country, I’d try to make sure there was always something impenetrable between them. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/16 "2010-11-16T09:24:34Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I’ve also encountered them in the wild many times. Once when my fishing lure was hung on what I thought was a log…until the “log” opened it’s mouth. One click slash with my fishing knife to cut the line as Dad backed us the hell away. We decided Mr. Gator could keep my beetle spin. Even if it was one with the hard to find at the time oddly-blue tail that the crappie were biting. Why did you use a monofilament line rather than a titanium line when fishing for gators? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Surb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Surb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Surb)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/17 "2010-11-16T12:22:59Z")
There was a veterinarian in NW Indiana that used to keep an American alligator in his office…loose. He would just roam around . There were loose cats there too. The cats and everyone else in the office treated it like a big old dog. It was a little odd going there and having to step over this five-foot beast. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/18 "2010-11-16T17:17:06Z")
> [@The\_Surb](#): > > There was a veterinarian in NW Indiana that used to keep an American alligator in his office..loose. He would just roam around . There were loose cats there too. The cats and everyone else in the office treated it like a big old dog. > > It was a little odd going there and having to step over this five-foot beast. How does one house train an alligator? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/19 "2010-11-16T17:31:46Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Why did you use a monofilament line rather than a titanium line when fishing for gators? I was fishing for crappie. The gator was a most unwelcome surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790/20 "2010-11-16T17:46:44Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > I didn’t think that was going to go well at all. Who doped the gators? My question was how long ago those gators ate. Must not have been long, because a hungry gator wouldn’t have hesitated to grab a snack. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-vs-gator/560790.md?page=2)