Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from August, 2022

ALLIGATORS IN THE CEDAR RIVER part 1: the boy who cried alligator (preview)

  My Name is Conrad Lender, I live in Taylor Reach. A quiet little community in King County Washington, between Renton and Maple Valley. Where Taylor Creek empties into the Cedar River. It’s cold here, much too cold for any giant, cold blooded reptile. Or, that’s what everyone said. Everyday I walk my dog Olympus, a three foot tall, one hundred and forty pound Great Dane. We walked along the cedar trail. A miles long, non-motor trail on an old railroad, named after the cedar river. Usually we cut through and walk the river bank to get home. I was never afraid of being attacked or eaten by some wild animal. The scariest animal there is around here is the grizzly bear, and in my whole life living here I have never seen one. But one day that would change. Who would’ve thought my first bear sighting would be of it being dragged away by a much scarier, much larger, much more aggressive animal. One that shouldn’t be able to survive here, The cold blooded, prehistoric, ALLIGATOR.