Doc Reed is providing sanctuary for yet another abandoned animal, this one an alligator found on Saturday on Willowcreek Road in Portage.

According to Portage Police, at 5:50 p.m. a motorist was traveling on Willowcreek, between U.S. Highway 6 and C.R. 700N, when she observed a plastic storage tub along the side of the road. She stopped to see if the tub was salvageable, police said, then decided she really didn’t want it after all, after discovering that it contained three-and-half-feet of alligator.

Police said that the gator was alive but lethargic from the cold. It spend the rest of a weekend with a Portage resident permitted by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to keep wildlife, while arrangements were made for Dr. Larry Reed to give it a temporary home at his veterinary clinic at 55 E. U.S. Highway 20 in Porter.

A clinic staffer confirmed that the gator arrived this morning, was “relaxing,” and looked to be in good health.

For years Reed has provided sanctuary for the flotsam and jetsam of the animal world: ducks, geese, chickens, mice, lizards, and venomous snakes.

And Reed’s no stranger to gators. For 20 years at least Gates the Alligator has made a home at the facility in a specially designed run.

Posted 2/25/2008