Ken Green & Nip take on a gator

Golf Digest, Dec, 2003 by Dave Kidred

Since 1948, more than 300 alligator attacks on humans have resulted in 13 deaths in Florida. As for dogs: "Dogs suffer many more attacks than humans, probably because dogs more closely resemble natural-prey ... "

Happily, when interrupted in its search for lunch, the gator in Ken Green's canal swam away. "In Mr. Green's case," trapper Butcher says, "the gator probably let go of the dog when he felt something on his tail. He was being attacked two ways, and he only had one mouth to defend himself. He just got out of there."

Green and Nip swam home. The dog needed 25 stitches in her left front leg and shoulder. Green had bruised ribs from the rasslin' match with an alligator that may have been seven feet long weighing 150 pounds.

Now the man and his dog lounge on a living room couch. Nip has her head between her paws.

She hears her man say, "People have asked, 'What in the world were you thinking?' And, 'Are you stupid?' Not one person has said, 'That was the right thing to do.' But, look. How could you just sit there and let that happen?"

Here, raising her pretty head, Nip says, "Write this down, Mr. Reporter: If it'd been Kenny in there, I'd have bitten that gator's ass till he let go."

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