It's been a rather wild week for me. I clarify that to mean "wild" as in wildlife.

Normally the view from my own backyard is a nature lover's paradise. With all the wildlife on parade I'm rewarded many times throughout the day with being able to watch shore birds along with some of Florida's "big birds."My home backs up to a pond that birds like to come to fish so there is normally plenty to see. But this has been our driest year on record and the pond is so low there doesn't seem to be sufficient water to wash away the water lettuce that is now covering the entire pond.As my neighbor and I were fretting about the disappearing wildlife, it seemed like the ducks and birds suddenly wanted to reassure us they were still there.My favorite blue herons, several big white egrets, dozens of ibises, an anhinga and a few varieties of ducks lined up along my bank all at the same time. They stood in a line, as if at parade rest.I never saw them do that before. I figured it was their way of telling our neighborhood: Cheer up. The lettuce-clogged pond hasn't sent us away.If all that wasn't enough to gladden my heart, we got two new residents in the neighborhood - a pair of sandhill cranes that made a nest in a Brazilian pepper tree across from my yard.Standing more than 4 feet tall with a haunting call that commands attention, sandhill cranes are a favorite with many.We call sandhill cranes our honeymoon birds because the male and female always stay together. Once they mate, they stay together for life.But my idyllic neighborhood with its peaceful wildlife sanctuary suddenly had a bit too much wildlife when an aggressive alligator refused to honor our boundaries.We've always had alligators in our pond, and that's normally not a problem. They stay on their side - the bank of the seventh hole of our golf course - and I stay on mine.But it's mating season, and one huge alligator in particular began threatening the neighborhood. At first it laid claim to my neighbor's front doorstep, stretching its long frame along the front of the house next to mine.That family has a rambunctious 2-year-old and couldn't even open their front door for fear the little boy would run out - right into the jaws of the aggressive alligator.The 92-year-old man across the street decided he no longer could walk safely in his own yard, fearing a sneak attack by the alligator.Another neighbor claims her daughter was frightened by the gator when walking to school in the dark.A day later when I was trimming hedges in my backyard I stayed away from one big bush, afraid the alligator could hide there. A few years ago one woman lost her arm that way.Two deputies with the Florida Fish and Wildlife alligator management program soon came to my house asking permission to drive over my lawn to capture the alligator.They had eight separate calls for help from terrified neighbors.Bear in mind these neighbors are used to alligators and don't normally get frightened of them.The two deputies told me they would cast a line in the water to capture the alligator that was last seen between my property and my neighbors'.While they were trying to get the gator, a belligerent stranger came in my yard, yelling at the deputies to leave the gator alone. Easy for him to say. He didn't live there.I expected to see the gator thrashing and fighting like they show on TV. But when they pulled in the line, the gator was dead.When the gator was weighed and measured, it was 11 feet, 4 inches and weighed more than 600 pounds.The deputies showed us how the alligator's skin was ripped, presumably due to a fight with another alligator. "We see that happen a lot during mating season," the deputy said.All captured gators, dead or alive, are taken to one of three alligator farms in the state. Live ones stay at the farm or are relocated to a remote area. Every bit of dead gator is used, included its skin, head and feet, according to the deputies.When word got out that the aggressive alligator was dead, 250 people put emotional responses on our community Facebook site. All but one lambasted the "fools who reported the alligator.""They were here first. If you can't coexist with nature, don't live here," were frequent comments.The neighbors who called the alligator patrol are 20-year Florida residents. They love nature, including the alligators. What they don't love is fearing their children are in danger.The Facebook debate got so out of hand the site administrator had to take it off.We are told there will soon be another information session about how to coexist with alligators. The number one rule, of course, is not to feed them, because that causes the gators to lose their fear of humans.When I kayak, I often see alligators in the water. It never bothered me until I saw the aggressive one in my neighborhood. Now, I am more cautious than I used to be.I still love all wildlife. But we all know nature is sometimes best viewed from a little distance.Contact Pattie Mihalik at

newsgirl@comcast.net.