Clearwater woman escapes alligator by poking him in the eye

CLEARWATER — On a hot day, Diane Blackwood stopped in the shade of an oak tree on the shore of Sawgrass Lake. Her vizsla, Ritka, sniffed along the waterline. Her dachshund, Beka, chased critters in the grass.

It was about 4:30 p.m. Monday, and Blackwood needed a break. She and her husband, Wesley Elsberry, had just followed a new job to Clearwater, and while he was at work she was surveying homes around the St. Petersburg park.

Suddenly, at the water's surface, a swirling. Something was underneath. Time to go.

Blackwood called out a run command to her dogs and turned to walk away. Ritka, a trained bird dog, dashed up from the water. Blackwood, a 5-foot-2 human, tripped and fell.

Out of the swirling and onto the shore launched a nearly 7-foot alligator, its eyes pinned on her. She was on her hands and knees, crawling away, when it lunged again, sinking its teeth into her calf.

Did she scream? She can't remember, although she thinks she didn't.

"It was slightly less painful than the blade of a lawn mower hitting your foot," said Blackwood, 48. "I've had a horse step on my foot. It doesn't help to scream."

What would help, she thought as the alligator tugged at her leg, would be to get away.

She reached back, stuck her hand between its jaws and tried to pry herself free. The prehistoric beast didn't let up.

As her left hand locked with the alligator's mouth, her right hand went for something more sensitive — its eye. Her thumb dug into the socket.

The gator let go.

Her leg was bleeding. Her thumb was bleeding. But she was okay. She gathered her dogs, wiped off the dirt, put a towel on her car seat and drove away.

She hated emergency rooms, and she didn't want her parents or husband to "freak," so she told them calmly.

She called her health insurance company, just to make sure she was covered, and then headed to Morton Plant Mease Hospital.

A large bite wound on her calf, a puncture wound on her thumb and some scratches on her hand, they told her. She got a few antibiotics, some gauze pads and dressing, and went home.

The alligator wasn't so lucky, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse.

A trapper, using the bite marks as a guide to what to look for, caught the 10- to 12-year-old gator late Tuesday.

Its meat and hide will be sold and the profit will go to the state's nuisance alligator program.

So how do we, potential entrees, respond knowing there are malicious creatures lurking in our lakes? We stop feeding them.

"These gators that tend to not be afraid of people tend to be the ones who come running when you throw the bait," Morse said. "They come to you, and this one did that without any hesitation."

It also helps, he said, to keep your pets on solid ground. To alligators, they look like prey.

Blackwood, who has a doctorate in marine sciences and is familiar with alligators, said she plans to go back to Sawgrass Lake Park — eventually.

She doesn't hold a grudge.

"I'm actually more angry at the person who fed him," she said. "The alligator was acting like an alligator."

Drew Harwell can be reached at dharwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.