Richmond woman finds alligator on front porch

RICHMOND, Texas – A Richmond woman had an unexpected visitor Tuesday morning when an alligator showed up on the doorstep of her mother’s house on Baron Sky Lane in the River Park West subdivision.

Allison Tonkin said her neighbor first spotted the gator on the front lawn, then it crept up the sidewalk to the front door.

“I probably should have been scared, especially since it was a glass door,” Tonkin said.

She recorded video on her cellphone as the 5-foot-gator came up to the glass, staring down her mother’s cat, Lola.

Soon after, another neighborhood cat started coming toward the gator from outside. Tonkin feared it might be an early lunch.

“The gator kind of parted its mouth a little bit and was looking at her intently,” Tonkin said.

Fortunately, a Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputy showed up just in time to scare the cat away. After that, a licensed nuisance control permittee wrangled the alligator.

“He was just flailing around,” Tonkin said. “They said his tail was strong enough to break somebody's ankle if he wanted to.”

Tonkin believes the gator came from the nearby Brazos River as a result of last week's flooding.