As we stood casting on the edge of the canal bank, I spied a 6- to 7-foot gator 50 yards down the canal. "Don't worry," I told my friend. "They won't hunt you."

Looking back up the canal, I noticed the gator had disappeared. I was convinced it was scared of us and had taken off. I cast once or twice more, and then as I went to step, I realized my right diving booty -- the shoes I wear wade-fishing -- was hung on something. I casually glanced down and almost had a heart attack. My right foot was stuck because the alligator I had seen was directly between my legs, its left foot pinning my right foot. I would tell you that I kept my composure and slowly moved my feet, but that's a stretch. The truth is, I yelled, threw myself backward and pitched my rod and reel. The gator made a large boil and went back up the canal.

It was only after the incident, when I regained my wits that I figured out what had happened. The worn path, a building nearby occupied five days a week and several sandwich bags near the path were all the proof I needed. There's no question the gator was used to being fed and he thought I was the meal guy.

One thing that alligators do quite often is kill dogs. Some breeds like Labrador retrievers love the water, and in fact, more Labs are killed by hungry gators than any other breed. However, no dog that goes near a big gator is safe.

All you have to do is consider the story of Flojo, a prized purebred Walker hunting dog belonging to Rufus Godwin of Chumuckla in Santa Rosa County. Godwin fox hunted with Flojo during the summer of 1995 in the Blackwater River State Forest. Flojo wore an electronic tracking collar, but one night the signal stopped and the dog seemed to vanish into thin air.

A few days later, Godwin returned to the same area and picked up the faint signal of Flojo's collar. He and a friend followed the signal down the side of a hill and through the underbrush to Coldwater Creek, then across to a small oxbow lake.

"When we walked up to the little lake and turned on the receiver, it went wild beeping. That's when I knew an alligator had her," he said.

The next day, Godwin, his son and two gator trappers went back and pulled an old bull gator from the lake. When the 10-foot, 11-inch gator was pulled from the water, they found it had not only eaten Godwin's dog, but the gator's stomach contained pieces and parts of six other dog collars, including one collar from a dog that had been missing for 14 years. An estimated 25 dogs had disappeared from that section of the forest over the years; most of them were thought to have been stolen.

One thing that sent a chill through everyone was the dog-eating gator lived its life only one-fourth mile down the creek from a popular swimming area. However, no one had ever reported seeing the gator. It apparently had remained hidden until barking dogs signaled feeding time.