SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Do people think I have lost my mind? Absolutely. People think that
I am going through a midlife crisis.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: I am 42 years old. Who wants to go out and play with alligators and venomous snakes?
I do.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Oh, well, before Gator country, my nails were always perfect, always
nice and clean. Now you look, they have got a bit of blood in them, little bit of dirt
in them, got little bit of blood in my hair too. I had to cut up a hog this morning for the Gators.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: My name is Shannon Williamson, I am 42 years old and I am from Beaumont,
Texas.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: About a year ago, I worked in an HR company where I had about 700 employees
that I dealt with on a daily basis.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: I met Gary; he is the owner of Gator Country.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: He brought me into this world where I fell in love with these animals.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: I tried to get up and do my HR job, put on my dress, put on my heels
and go to work. Then one day I just said, ‘I am not going back.’
GARY SAURAGE: Shannon had this crazy job, like; she went all around and hobnobbed with
all of these well-to-do folks. And I really never did think that a person that was doing
all of what she was doing, would give that up to come live in the mud.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Gator Country is a place where we rescue alligators, we rescue snakes,
we rescue all kinds of reptiles. What did I think of Gary at first? Well, I pull up
in this parking lot at a really nice restaurant and he pulled up beside me in this huge Dodge
Dually wrapped in alligator. And I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness! Look at this redneck.’
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Well, that lunch date ended up being 8 hours long.
GARY SAURAGE: After several months of being at Gator Country, she finally got this incredible
want to have her own alligator. And I thought, ‘Okay! Go pick you one.’ She came home
and she said, ‘Okay! I got my alligator. There is the one I want.’ He is 11 feet,
7 inches, weighs 550 lbs. I am thinking, ‘Couldn’t we have started a little smaller?’’
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: So, this is Mr. Cuddles. When I first started working with the Gators,
I was terrified. I could feel my knees shaking.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: He is probably my second best friend in the world besides Gary.
Mr.Cuddles took to me and I took to him.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: If you look at him, he looks like a Chihuahua.
GARY SAURAGE: No, he doesn’t look like a Chihuahua. This animal has got 80 teeth and
he bites down with 3000 lbs. per square inch, make no mistake. This is not a Chihuahua.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: So an alligator sees side to side. They have peripheral vision. They
don’t see you when you are standing in front of them. So when I get to the side of him,
he can see me. But when I standing in front of him, he can’t see me.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: You see this bucket right here? That’s Mr. Cuddles reward. Every time
he does good, Mr. Cuddles get rewarded. So he is learning. I am teaching him.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: And that’s how Mr Cuddles has been working with me, day-by-day, every
day. And he loves it. I love it. There is nothing like the first time you get up there
with that animal.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: And you actually get in that pond and you touch that animal. You don’t
know how they are going to move. You are scared to death. But let me tell you, it was the
most amazing feeling.
JESSICA HAMMONDS: From heels to rain boots, yeah, it’s, it was a shock, quite a shock.
But she has come along. I didn’t think she would ever get involved with the alligators
but she tried it. And I guess once you try, I mean, you just kind of, you get hooked.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: This is a Reticulated Python. He is from South-East Asia. He is
probably about 15 feet right now and he is a quick snake. So, let’s give him a little
pat here. Hey, Sher Khan.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: One of the three top longest snakes in the world. I want to grab his tail,
let him know I am here and we will get him out.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: So if you noticed, he is pretty quick.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Very long snake. It’s Sher Khan.
GARY SAURAGE: These snakes have 90 teeth in their mouth and they all angle backwards. Once
they lock down, you are not getting out of that bite.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: We are going to put him in this box and we are going to clean out his cage.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: So he is in his box. Constrictors like to wrap around you and compress.
So when he got around me, he started compressing but I needed to control his head because his bite
is a little bit worse. He is very long so he wrapped real good around me.
GARY SAURAGE: The best thing that you just did, the one thing that completely saves you
was that you had his head here and your arm stayed extended and you didn’t panic. That’s
the worst thing I have ever seen happen with a constricted snake in this park. It really is.
I have never
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: You have never seen it.
GARY SAURAGE: I have never seen it actually be able to control someone’s movement like
that. The snake was so aggressive just then. It actually had itself but it was looking
for her arm. Had it been able to get in her arm then we went to another level. I can tell
you from my stance, that was almost dangerous.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: That was a unique situation. He has never really constricted around me.
So usually when I have him by his head, he is pretty, he is pretty controllable. So it
was fun. Let’s move on.
GARY SAURAGE: I have never been bit by a venomous snake. Now I have been bit by the constrictors
and I have been tore up by alligators. But no venomous snake and I don’t plan to let that happen either.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: All right. So these are American alligators. These are some of our
smaller alligators that we have in here that we are training to handle and I like to go
in there and sit down with them sometimes. They will crawl up in my lap and I’ll feed
them with small tongs.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: So we are going to come in here with the injured alligators. These
are probably my second favourite, besides the venomous snakes and Mr. Cuddles of course.
I am going to show you about them.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: So this Gary right here, take a look at his face. He was pretty injured.
He got shot by a gun. We got him all healed up, he is eating and this will be his first
time out to a real pond in probably about five or six months. So let's go take him out
to the pond - introduce him to his new friends. He is ready.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: So this right here is our 4 to 6 foot pond. This is what rehabilitation is all about.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Watch him, going to make some new friends in his natural environment
right there. That’s what rehabilitation is all about, guys.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Do I miss my old career? Absolutely not.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Everyday is a different day here.
SHANNON WILLIAMSON: Every day I wake up so thankful. I roll out of bed and I look forward
everyday to come into work. This is not even work to me. This is fun, this is love and this is family.