Coed Takes Her Grad Photo with Her 'Best Friend,' the 1,000lb Gator

Source – A student went viral after posing for graduation photos with her ‘best friend’ – an enormous alligator. Makenzie Alexis Noland celebrated finishing Texas A&M by giving the 13 foot, eight inch reptile an affectionate bump on the nose – and shared the moment on Facebook afterwards.

The aspiring zookeeper visited her 1,000-pound pal, called Big Tex, last week after spending three months interning at Gator Rescue in Beaumont, Tx., where the creature lives.

She said she quickly struck up a friendship with Big Tex, and that he now lets her tickle his nose, feed him – and even balance her class ring on his snout.

If I’ve learned anything from Makenzie Alexis Noland and Big Tex, it’s that I know nothing about zoology. At least beyond every episode ever of Crocodile Hunter and umpteen viewings Peter Pan with my kids. Based on those, I’d assume the very first thing you learn on Day 1 of Intro to Zookeeping at Texas A&M would be:

“1) Don’t put your hand on the snout of a leathery, half ton, Sauron-eyed murder log. Not ever.”

But here you go. This just proves the limits of my Bachelor’s of Business from Bridgewater State because apparently not only can you take pictures with these perfectly adapted, living hunter-killer submarine, you can basically treat them as you would a Labradoodle. Love them and somehow they’ll suppress a hundred million years of evolution and just love you back. Have I got that right?

Then again, it could just be more likely that even in his primitive, instinctual, reptilian brain, Big Tex thinks just like the rest of us do. That like all males, he’s wired to try to be nice to extremely cute females like Makenzie to make them like us. Either way, she’s a badass. I pity any stupid, drunken Aggie frat boy that ever tried to mess with her. She’s a goddamned Valkyrie.

PS. Looking at these pictures I can’t help but be reminded that the Irish Rose goes running out of the room any time she sees a moth.