Bruce had just appeared one day and taken up duties as resident alligator.  For months he could be seen, and if not in sight, a stone chunked into the pond alerted him that someone was looking for him.  Then, overnight, he was gone.  The sheriff had them file a missing gator report, an Amber alert was posted, he even got his picture on milk cartons, but he was gone.  Some speculated that the lure of big money in the West Texas Oilfields or maybe the North Dakota oil jobs had been too much to resist. . . . .  David, Sf.G.