Tuesday, June 30, 2009
A Dose of Real Life
Our friend Warren just returned from several months at the beach, where he and his wife Tuli have been supervising construction on their beachfront condo. In mid-May he sent us this chilling first-hand account of a family tragedy. [NOTE: If you get emotional about pets, you might not want to read any further.]Today, Saturday almost noon we are in our condo looking things over. Suddenly we hear a child’s terrified shriek. Then screaming...children…adults…panicked shouts.
We look down (the mangrove is just below us) and see Panchita [the resident one-eyed crocodile] spinning in the water below. Clearly she has a black midsized dog in her mouth. A woman is screeching and wanting, trying, to go in the water to save her pet from the 15-foot-long croc. Two kids, a boy 10 and a girl 12, stand nearby, mortified.
The father comes running up, with him a golden retriever. The retriever immediately goes into the water to save the black dog. The second dog is in the water before anyone knows it and now there is a din of screaming, “Oh my god!!!” As the lab approaches the croc another croc leaps up and attacks it, taking its face in its mouth, trying to spin. As it spins it loses traction on the retriever's face. The dog pulls free, turns and somehow, miraculously, makes it to shore as the other croc pursues.
The woman steps forward to fight the croc and he turns towards her, but goes back into the water. Shrills, shrieks, screams of horror fill the air as the father takes the bloodied retriever away from the water. The woman, beside herself, is emboldened and wants to enter the water to somehow rescue her black dog, who is of course dead. We are screaming, "Don't go into the water!" She comes to her senses and just screams at the top of her lungs, "Fucking crocodile!" The kids are beside themselves with horror -- crying, mortified. Everyone is in shock.
For a long while we stand there watching this most unbelievable sickening tragedy. Panchita just sits, nose and eyes above the water like the croc in Peter Pan… waiting for a second course.
We do not let Kurt [
