Gator shopping

MAURICEVILLE -- A gator catcher went gator shopping between a grocery store and fast food restaurant.

The man who owns Gator Country Park in Fannett was called to catch an alligator in the drainage system on Highway 12, between I-10 and Highway 62 in Mauriceville.

Gary Saurage pulled a nearly 4 foot long alligator from a drain pipe in Mauriceville.

"Not the size of the alligator that was tough by any means. It was the position he got in. He was actually under Sonic for a minute," says Saurage.

The gator took up residence in a pipe and the work to get him out began more than 4 hours before he made his first appearance.

Workers from Gator Country tried trapping, baiting and drying him out.

"I've done a lot of rescues from deep water to swimming pools. Every kind of rescue you can imagine. But to catch one under a culvert at Sonic was the toughest one I've ever done," says Saurage.

The one thing that worked - Mauriceville volunteer firefighters.

"They're the ones that put in enough water in the pipe to blow him out to me," says Saurage.

A crowd watched as Saurage grabbed the gator by the tail and wrestled him out of the culvert. His snout was taped shut after biting Saurage.

"Doesn't mean you're a professional when you get bit. Not at all," says Saurage.

Then he was ready for pictures.

"Me petting it. I like the way they feel," says Ried Peco.

And a lesson to the kids that watched, like Reid Peco.

Now the gator will make his new home at Gator Country in Fannett, away from any culverts.

"Proudly say we're the only conservationist in the state that has alligator park. Rescue animals and bring them back to the park," says Saurage.

A place where Peco and many others can visit a gator no longer behind bars.

Saurage says they will name the gator 'Orange County.'

It is the 68th gator he and his crew have caught this year.