This past Friday, I had a dream that there was an alligator in my house. I saw it in the hallway on the first floor and it scurried off into the office, a room with just one way in and out.

While it wasn’t a full-grown alligator, it was no baby, either. Probably about four feet long and maybe 50 pounds. Certainly it was enough alligator to alarm!

In reality, I imagine if I’d just seen an alligator in my house, I would call 911. Or at least call for my husband, Matt, who in the dream was upstairs. But in the dream, all I could think was, “I need to get a picture of this!” And I woefully realized that all of my camera equipment was, of course, in the office. With the alligator.

I tried to devise ways that I could somehow get through the room and over to my camera, lying on the table. I tried to remember which lens was on the camera, and thought about whether it would be the optimal choice for that situation when there’s an alligator in your house.

A little bit of sense came to me as I thought of Chase Jarvis and his book The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You. In this case, I thought Chase was right, and that the best camera was the one that was not in a room with an alligator in it. And so I retrieved my point and shoot from my purse, which was easily accessible.

I then crept into the office, peeking around the corner. No alligator. I figured it had to be under the futon, and as I bent over to look underneath, sure enough, an alligator jaw emerged and chomped my hand. Rather gently, though, for an alligator. It was a hard enough bite to hurt, but not hard enough to do any real damage.

And then it took off, back through the house and out the front door, and a moment later Matt came downstairs. I told him there had just been an alligator in our house. Really! I know it sounds crazy, but there was!

He didn’t believe me.

I’ll never know what would have happened next, because my dog woke me up. THE END!