A Landlord Encounters an Unexpected House Guest While Evicting a Tenant

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Pie
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Photo by Kyaw Tun on Unsplash

One vacant apartment in Kansas City, Missouri, had an unexpected guest inside and it’s no ordinary visitor.

It was discovered that the tenant of the apartment had been keeping a 6-foot-long, 150-pound alligator, as a pet illegally, according to city workers who responded to the landlord’s frantic call.

The workers also found two boa constrictors and some rabbits, who were later transferred to local rescues.

Sean Casey, the tenant, told the Kansas City Star that he’d had the alligator, whose name was Catfish, for four years, and that he was a “big and cuddly lizard. He smiled all the time.”

Despite banning alligators as pets in many states in the US, including Missouri, it’s still easy for people to buy them and other exotic creatures from illicit wildlife dealers on the internet.

Alligators, being natural hunters, can swim up to 20 miles per hour, but Catfish wasn’t closely exercising while living in a hot tub. Luckily, for this gator, he now has a chance to live in a natural habitat.

Local animal control officials, with the help from a wildlife specialist, were able to safely transferred Catfish to a nearby sanctuary, where he can live happily in a more appropriate environment with plenty of room to swim.