A long snout. Small, needle-like teeth. Round, beady eyes.
It was a different kind of visitor that greeted a Lexington woman and her dog Sunday as they opened their front door on the way for an afternoon walk -- a baby alligator.
"It opened its mouth and hissed at the dog," said Nathan Bowling, Lexington-Fayette Animal Care and Control chief. The alligator was about a foot and a half long and resting on the woman's ground-level front porch, he said.
The unidentified woman, who lives at Park Place Apartments on Tates Creek Road, called Lexington police. They called Animal Control about 5 p.m.
"We were able to use the pole to gently secure him and move him into the truck and then we transported him over here to the shelter," said Animal Control spokeswoman Carrie Trapp.
Animal Control officials built a makeshift swamplike habitat with water, rocks and a heat lamp for the alligator, but Trapp said the shelter is not equipped to keep such a creature long-term.
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife has given Animal Control clearance to give the alligator to a licensed person or organization. Yesterday, officials were looking for a facility to take it.
Alligators are not native to Kentucky, which means someone brought the reptile to Lexington from elsewhere, Bowling said. He said it is illegal to have alligators as pets, and breaking the law can be punishable by hefty fines.
Bowling said four alligators have been captured in Lexington in the last 19 years.
"This was the smallest," he said.
Animal Control officials have yet to determine who brought the reptile to Lexington or why, but Bowling said this was an isolated incident and people have no reason to worry.
"We know it didn't just grow up out there," he said.
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