Looks like the bro is moving out of the mother’s place… sound idea, I think. I know he can afford an efficiency now, and they’re just butting heads at this point.

Me, I’d have lobbed his ass back to jail after earlier this week… but I’m glad they’re still working with him. He’s got some good appointments for this morning.

I plan on visiting him later this week and playing some heroclix, or goofing off in some other way.

I’ve calmed down a lot over the last couple of days. Maintaining rage is too much work…it tires me out.

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Overly friendly gator banished

A fearless young alligator living comfortably among humans in a public park was hauled away and will live in the Everglades.

He was abandoned as a babe and is blind in one eye, but 5-year-old Wally has his fans.

People like Tony Trusso dropped by Perrine Wayside Park to visit him daily — even toss a bagel or two his way.

”He likes bagels,” Trusso, who lives by the Palmetto Bay park, said.

But as time went on, Wally grew just as alligators tend to do. At age 5, he was a typical four feet and 20 pounds. A friendly gator — but one neighbors feared might be dangerous one day.

So Tuesday, a state-hired trapper caught Wally and hauled him away.

”We didn’t want him to become an attraction,” said Mayor Eugene Flinn.

Flinn said he thinks Wally was once someone’s pet but was abandoned a year ago at the park, which is snuggled between the shops and car dealerships that dot U.S. 1.

The blindness in his right eye was probably caused by some unkind foe, trying to pelt him with rocks, or even a BB gun bullet, said Pesky Critters trapper Todd Hardwick.

This is Pesky Critters’ busy season. With breeding and nesting season coming between April and July, Hardwick can expect to get 50 to 70 calls about gators a week.

But Wally’s presence in a park put him at the top of the removal list.

When Hardwick went to catch Wally on Tuesday, the alligator was hanging out on the edge of the park’s pond. He didn’t try to scramble when humans approached.

So Hardwick took out a fishing rod and used a hook to grab into the gator’s rough hide.

Flinn took the rod, and Hardwick lassoed Wally and pulled him out of the pond. The pair then taped his snout shut and tied his feet together.

Palmetto Bay’s upper command — the village manager, public works director and top police officer — all looked on.

The operation took no more than 10 minutes and was caught on tape for a show called Miami Animal Police to be shown on Animal Planet.

As Wally lay on the ground, he appeared calm. His tail swooshed back and forth.

”That animal should not be behaving that way,” Hardwick said, adding that the reptile’s comfort level around people was abnormal, making him dangerous.

”His friendliness puts him in a position where kids may try to catch him and he will bite,” Hardwick said.

Wally got that way in part by being a pet and also by people — illegally — feeding him at the park.

Wally’s trapping on Tuesday probably saved his life. Captured alligators that measure longer than four feet in length are killed, said Colleen Ecklof, assistant alligator coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Wally came in just under the limit.

So the alligator will have a new home, 20 miles west of Krome Avenue off the Tamiami Trail, in the Everglades.

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Ephemerist Images

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Odd Todd’s Latest – Career Day I hope the 2005 gig treats him well.

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