Monster Hoax or Truly Beast?

The Saber-Toothed Assassin (top), was supposedly seen last Tuesday night by Mac Dee Dee who's meat crate it ripped open (bottom).

You might recall that in the past, we've written on some strange creature sightings in the past (e.g. The Great Pumpkin and a strange weasel-like mammal), and for the past few months, Riverville has been sort of quiet in this department because we haven't had any strange creature sightings . . . until last Tuesday night. Just when we thought all was quiet, another one of these unidentified creatures, known as “cryptids”, makes its presence known at Mac Dee Dee's Farm, the same farm that opened just a few weeks ago. When a cryptid was sighted at the farm, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I went over to the farm to get an interview with the farm's owner, Mac Dee Dee. “It was about 10:00 p.m. and I was sitting in my office about to go lie down for some shuteye,” says Mac Dee Dee, “when I looked up at the computer monitor that was connected to the security camera's we have outside and I just barely noticed a large creature run through the woods near the place I keep one of my tractor containment crates.” Mac Dee Dee went on to explain that inside the crate was a refrigerated compartment for holding fresh cow meat that was going to be shipped off the following day. Mac Dee Dee was quoted for saying, “But now I can't ship any of that meat off because that creature, whatever it was, clawed it open. It didn't bother to try eating the meat however, I'm not sure why. But just before it left, a pressed the 'snap photo' button on the security camera program and got a good picture of the beast.” Mac Dee Dee explained that his security camera system didn't save video footage, otherwise he would have taken a gotten a video clip of the beast. When I asked to see the photo, he showed it to me. The creature was unlike any wild creature I'd seen before. It was a four-legged, rhino-sized predator with a pair of saber-teeth protruding from its mouth, much like a saber-toothed cat. But this wasn't a cat, in fact, it wasn't even a mammal, but a reptile by the looks of it. Then Mac Dee Dee took us to see the crate the predator had torn through. True to his word, the animal's sharp claws tore right through it and due to the possibility of contamination, Mac Dee Dee had to loose his meats. With Mac Dee Dee's permission, I took the photo to Dr. Samuel Adamson, a head paleontologist at Animal Adventures Institute to see if he could identify the creature for me (I went to him instead of a zoologist because I thought this might be an animal believed to be extinct). He is quoted for saying, “I'm not exactly sure, but this cryptid is, but it looks a great deal like the Permian reptile known as a gorgonopsid. Depending on the species, a gorgonopsid could be the size of a small dog, to the size of a rhinoceros in the case of a species such as Gorgonops and Inostrancevia. But what all gorgonopsids had in common was a pair of saber-teeth that protruded from the top of the jaw.” As you might recall, the head geneticist of Animal Adventures Institute, Dr. Steve Stevenson, has successfully cloned a gorgonopsid named Gordon, but she's assured me that she's not the one responsible for tearing into Mac Dee Dee's meat crate. “I was sleeping like a baby at 10pm on Tuesday night,” she says. “Ask anyone here at the [Animal Adventures] Studios and they'll tell you the same. Besides, if I did sneak out and run to Mac Dee Dee's farm, security would have spotted me.” So with this new cryptid sighting making all the main local news outlets, it's guaranteed that this creature – now being affectionately referred to as “The Saber-Toothed Assassin” by some – is bound to attract some monster hunters, hoping to prove its existence. We may not know if this creature's a hoax or a real animal, but perhaps 21^st century technology will help track this monster down before it causes too much trouble, but if its anything like the famous cryptids such as Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti, we could be searching for the Saber-Toothed Assassin for some time to come . . . let's hope it doesn't turn up in my backyard!

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan and Joy Hammond

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Next Issue: Wrapped Up in Duck Tape!

Happy Birthday Smiley's News!

I, Mr. Smiley, am pleased to announce that Smiley's News, the "weekly paper that puts the smile in news" recently celebrated its 1-year anniversary on August 16th, the day we posted our first newspaper a year ago! Wow! The time flies! To celebrate, I've selected three of our most popular articles from my archives for your reading enjoyment.

The third most popular article was:

3rd Most Popular Article: What Cake Pops? It's . . . Cake Pops!

For today's article, we've decided to devote it to baking one thing in particular - Watermelon-shaped Cake Pops! But there are other types of cake pops you can make too. What a variety!

Hey there everyone, Lizzy the Lizard here and I'm in the kitchen with my younger sister, Lily. Did I mention that she would make a great chef someday? She watches cooking shows and reads recipe books. Lily is always asking if we could bake something, like cupcakes. Well today she plans on making a batch of watermelon-shaped cake pops with mom. It sounds delicious, can't wait to try them! I decided to ask why she wanted to bake today. "I'm always in a baking mood," she replied, "I just love to bake!" I decided to ask her what ingredients were needed. "You have to have 1 box of white cake mix (Betty Rocker super moist preferred, or you could make your own . . . but that's a whole other process!), 1/4 teaspoon of pink paste food coloring, 3/4 cup of vanilla frosting, 3/4 cup of mini semisweet chocolate chips, 32 lollipop sticks, 1 bag of candy melts, 1 large block white plastic foam, 1 bag (16 oz) of green candy melts, and 1 cup of light green candy melts," Lily the lizard said. "Hey do you mind teaching our readers how to make these delicious treats?" I asked her. "Well you start off by heating the overnight to 350 degrees and spraying a 13 by 9 inch pan with cooking spray. Make and bake the cake mix and use water, oil, and egg whites while adding pink paste food color. Then let the cake cool completely," said Lily. I watched as mom and Lily baked a cake an then laid it down on the counter to cool off. As the cake was chilling, Lily took a line cookie sheet with waxed paper and laid it down on another part of the counter. She checked the cake and then crumbled it up in a large bowl. "Why did you do that?" I asked, confused. "That's how you make the cake pops." Lily explained. She added frosting and the chocolate chips into the mix and stirred it up. "Here's a fun part to me!" she exclaimed. "You take some of the mix and you shape it into a ball or an oval. You should be able to get at least 32 of them. Then you place them carefully on the cookie sheet and freeze them until their firm by putting them in the freezer. Once firm, you transfer the balls into the refrigerator." Lily, mom, and I decided to watch a movie while we waited for the pops to become firm. "Here's were it gets harder to explain," said Lily, "I think mom can explain it better." My Mom was happy to explain (she was also pretty excited to be quoted for the newspaper too). "You remove the cake balls from the fridge," she told us. "Then dip the tip of one lollipop stick into the melted white candy and insert it into one cake ball, no more than halfway in. Then you dip each cake ball into the melted white candy and cover it. After that, you poke the other end of the stick into the foam block but we just used an empty shoe-box and poked holes into it. Do it with all of the other cake balls. Then let them sit in the fridge until their dry meaning until the candy melt has hardened. After that, dip the cake balls in the green candy melt and cover it all up. Then set it back in the fridge." I watched as Lily took a lollipop stick and dipped one of the ends in the white chocolate. I saw her take out one of the cake balls and plunge the stick into it but not all the way. Then she twirled the cake ball around carefully in the bowl of white candy melts. Lily walked over to the fridge and put the other end of the stick into a hole on the top of a box for the cake pop to stand. "Later, after its been dipped in green and dried, we use a toothpick and decorate the cake balls with the light green candy to make it look like a watermelons. You know watermelons need some stripes!" Lily said, excitedly. After the cake pops were done, we each took one and are it. "Wow these are delicious!" I exclaimed. "And it really looks like you bit into a watermelon that has seeds, how cool. "Well that's it for now folks, tune in next time . . . to see me all wrapped . . . in duck tape? Bye, I've got to get another one of these cake pops, it's delicious!

Written by: Lizzy Lizard

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond and Mr. Smiley

Now, the second most popular article:

2nd Most Popular Article: Dinosaurs Reproducing After Their Own Kind

The proud new parent Brachiosaurus (top) and Parasaurolophus (bottom) pairs.

A lot has been happening at Animal Adventures Inc. (AAI.) lately! But the most recent news is happening at Animal Adventures Institute (a section of AAI. that studies animals). In the first time in hundreds of years, some of the species of dinosaurs at the institute have laid eggs! This isn’t the first time this has happened at the institute. The first dinosaur eggs laid by the already cloned dinosaurs themselves were T. rex eggs back in December of 2009. Three T. rex babies hatched (named Jane, Little Clint and Eggbert). In 2010, the next clutch to be laid were that of the Institute’s Spinosaurus and Apatosaurus. They each hatched two eggs. In 2011, a baby Triceratops and two baby Stegosaurus hatched. Now in 2012, more dinosaur species have laid eggs. When I heard about this, my junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I had to check it out. The proud parents are Mr. and Mrs. Brachiosaurus and Mr. and Mrs. Parasaurolophus. Now Brachiosaurus is one of the largest long-necked or sauropod dinosaurs, and Parasaurolophus is one of the duckbilled or hadrosaur dinosaurs. Both parents now have five eggs each. Head scientist Dr. Steve Stevenson explains, “This is really revolutionary! No one alive today has ever seen living Brachiosaurus or Parasaurolophus eggs. Actually I take that back, no one alive hasever seen eggs from these two species, living or fossil.” The eggs are big, each one is about the size of a football. In the wild, sauropods didn’t care for the eggs. Instead, the parent dinosaur would lay them and move on. Here in the institute, the parents aren’t going to care for the eggs either, instead, they get to care for them once they hatch. “No offense to the sauropods,” Dr. Steve says, “but they don’t have very big brains. The reason why wild sauropods left their eggs was because having a very small brain meant they probably had trouble determining where their head and feet are verses where the eggs are. So that’s why we’ll return the eggs to the parent dinosaurs after they hatch.” The creature selected to care for the sauropod eggs is Mr. Oliver Oviraptor. He is a dinosaur Dr. Steve has cloned and is very capable of taking care of eggs. "Oviraptors can take very good care of eggs," Oliver says, "Even our fossils have been found of us guarding our eggs from the potential dangers of the dinosaur world." Hadrosaurs, on the other hand, did care for both the eggs and babies in the wild since they had larger brains. We know this because relatives of Parasaurolophus have been found with fossil nests. My photographer and I also had the chance to interview the proud mothers of each brood. “We are just so excited,” says Mrs. Brachiosaurus, “We’ve been here for quite a few years and haven’t had any children. This is exactly the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. We aren’t sure how many of the eggs will hatch, but hopefully at least one, or two, or three, or . . . well, I want all of them to hatch!” Mrs. Parasaurolophus also had something to say about her brood, "I am also excited about the eggs. Once they hatch, I'll be able to show how good at mothering a mother dinosaur can be!" She went on to say that baby dinosaurs hatch out of eggs much more mature than human babies. "Baby hadrosaurs can talk at a few hours," she says, "they can walk within a few months and they can run with the herd within maybe a few months to a year, it all depends on the health of the baby." So maybe Animal Adventures Institute will hear the pitter-patter of little dino-paws sometime soon. You can be sure Smiley's News will keep you posted on this one!

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographed by: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan

Now it's time for the most popular article that's ever been published for Smiley's News. The most popular article is (drum-roll please) . . .

Most Popular Article: New Animal Face-Off Series Beams Success

These are all the animals from the new series!

A lot of you probably already know that my good friend Nigel Milligan is the CEO of Animal Adventures Inc. (AAI.). An “under-business” (if you will) of AAI. is Animal Adventures Studios(AAS). This is where the company makes movies and TV shows. Their latest and so far biggest project yet has recently been released on television. This series is called Animal Face-Off. “After completing our second short, ‘Jurassic Park: The Game – Triceratops Troubles’, I was eager to get on with bigger projects,” Nigel says. “So I thought an Animal Face-Off series was a great idea.” This series is quite different from most other documentary series you’ve seen. There are nine episodes in season one. These episodes are:

1. Lion vs. Tiger
2. Hippo vs. Bull Shark
3. Elephant vs. Rhino
4. Velociraptor vs. Protoceratops
5. Velociraptor vs. Ankylosaur
6. Tyrannosaurus vs. Ankylosaurus
7. Tarantula vs. Scorpion
8. Tyrannosaurus vs. Spinosaurus
9. Special: Battle at Kruger

Each episode (with the exception of the special) starts out with a little introduction to each animal. Then the narrator, another friend of mine named Christian Ryan, tells the audience the strengths and weaknesses of each animals in the face-off. Finally the face-off is revealed, and the endings can become quite a surprise to some viewers! Finally, the narrator then tells us why the winner won the face-off. The series mainly positive reviews from a wide range of critics and as of January 24, 2013, each episode has had a lot of views:

Lion vs. Tiger - 1,301 views

Hippo vs. Bull Shark - 1004 views

Elephant vs. Rhino - 921 views

Velociraptor vs. Protoceratops - 484 views

Velociraptor vs. Ankylosaur - 408 views

Tyrannosaurus vs. Ankylosaurus - 328 views

Tarantula vs. Scorpion - 667 views

Tyrannosaurus vs. Spinosaurus - 395 views

Special: Battle at Kruger - 285 views

The series ran from September 13, 2012-December 31, 2012. After a successful series such as this, some might be wondering what Nigel plans to do next. So that was what I asked him. “I like to stay ahead of things,” says Nigel. “So well before the Animal Face-Off series was finished, we were also working on a documentary series called ‘Planet of the Dinosaurs’. In this series, we will be taking viewers back in time to show them what dinosaurs were really like after the Fall of Man and how new fossil evidence is revealing some of the most amazing creatures that God ever assembled. I mean, lots of the dinosaurs in the series were only discovered in the past few years. Thanks to scientific advancements, we’ve been able to unlock mysteries that have puzzled scientists for decades and go deeper into fossils than ever before; and thanks to the invention of the Time-A-Tron we are now able to literally go back in time and film the amazing creatures in their natural element. At this very moment, my film crew is back in prehistoric Wyoming, filming a few days in the life of one of the most terrible killers of the Jurassic lands: Allosaurus!” I then asked Nigel if his series is the first series to use time travel to film the prehistoric animals. “No, we aren’t. The first people to do so were with the BBC channel where they went back in time to film a series called “Walking with Dinosaurs.” They went on to do other popular series such as “Walking with Beasts” a sequel to WWD and “Walking with Monsters” a prequel to WWD. Other series using time travel include: Prehistoric Park, When Dinosaurs Roamed America, Dinosaur Planet,Dinosaur Revolution and most recently, Planet Dinosaur. And my series, Planet of the Dinosaursis the next great dinosaur documentary series. With the Lord’s blessing, this series will be a huge success and will help shed light on some of the lesser known animals of the Mesozoic lands (by “Mesozoic”, he is referring to the lands the dinosaurs lived in, not the fictional time periods that secularists say dinosaurs lived in).” Before I ended the interview, I had one last question to ask: what are some of the animals to expect in this new series? “Well, while we will have episodes devoted to famous dinosaurs – T. rex, Triceratops and Velociraptor – we plan to shed light on other less familiar species, such as the intriguing Spinosaurus, Rugops, Guanlong, Gigantoraptor and etc.” This series is in the works and is scheduled to be released sometime in April. I can’t wait!

PS: To see the new series, click here: Animal Face-Off.

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan

I hope you enjoyed reading through the most popular articles Smiley's News has ever published and I hope that we'll be able to enjoy another great year of Smiley's News!

Written by: Mr. Smiley

School's Buzzing at Snowflake's Christian School for Animals

The Snowflake's Christian School for Animals is a newly opened school, a great place for animals to learn Mathematics, English, Science and many other skills.

Note: The article you are about to read describes the actions and what was said during Lizzy's first television interview with Snowflake's Christian School for Animals.

A Lizard is seen playing a game on her iPod.

“Umm, Miss we're on the air!” exclaims a voice behind the camera.

“Oops umm...Hi, this is Lizzy the Lizard and today I'm going to Mrs. Snowflake's Christian School for Animals (or SCSA), where the school year has started a bit earlier than usual. I, Lizzy, decided to interview some of the students and staff to see their opinion on the school.” “It's great, there's so many sports like Basketball, volleyball, track, and soccer,” exclaims an anxious joey, named Roo, as we walk down the hallway. “I'm trying out for basketball. The games area totally awesome! There's flags and banners...the best part is the food, there's...”

“Thanks for showing such enthusiasm, Roo,” I say.

“It's fun, Mrs. Hippo...I mean Mrs. Snowflake makes sure that kids in my grade get the education they need, but my favorite time is snack time!” states a first grader name, Jelly the Field Mouse. “You should go talk to my mom, Peanut or Butter, my little sister.”

“Peanut, Butter, and Jelly, huh um... How original,” I remark into the camera.

“It's time to go into the teacher's lounge,” I declare as I continue down the hallway. “Hello Lumpy," I ask a heffalump (elephant), "what do you think of the education here at SCSA?”

“Lizzy, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in class?” questions the heffalump.

“Umm I'm kind of doing a documentary of the school for a blog,” I answer before turning to the camera man, “We can delete that part, right?”

“Here we have the cafeteria, where the students eat and . . . um . . .” I walk over to the kitchen area. “What's you're take on the food here.”

“It's the best” exclaims the Penny the penguin as he slaps some fish-smelling paste with bits of fish parts in it on some bread. “I make it myself.”

“I think I'm gonna be sick!” I exclaim, camera zooms at me as I rush out of the room.

I finally return. The camera man takes a close up of my face as I say, “You don't....umm.. like regurgitate the food and serve it...right?”

“Nonsense, I only do that for Penguinia-Ann, my little sister.” the penguin reassures me.

“That's nice to know,” I exclaim, “Now let's get some feedback on how the food tastes.”

“It's magical!” exclaims a kindergartner name, Puff (the magic dragon).

“My mom's cooking is better,” remarks fourth grader, Snowball Hippo.

“I'll like peanuts,” states another fourth grader named, Butter the chipmunk.

I'm seen taking a spoonful of mac& cheese.

“This is good,” I exclaim, checking my watch. “Well it's almost time to go so this is Lizzy the Lizard coming from the Mrs. Snowflake's school for animals!”

The video ends with Lizzy gobbling up the Mac & cheese.

Written by: Lizzy the Lizard

Photographed by: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond & Mr. Smiley

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The Speed Dashers Take Off . . . Slowly

The crowd went wild as the Flame Dashers "dashed" to the finish line last Tuesday.

Last Tuesday, a new event was held at Animal Adventures Inc. (AAI.) known as the Flame Dashers. What's so special about this event and what exactly is it? Well, it is technically a racing event that is held yearly by an organization called Racer's International and one prime location this year is, as mentioned before, AAI., and it was a great turn out. “I've always loved Animal Adventures Inc.,” says Gorge Philips, the British CEO of Racer's International, “and considering its location, I thought it would be a wonderful place to have the event. And as I suspected, it was a great turnout!” Within 30 minutes before the race began, a crowd of thousands of people went directly to the sectioned off area of AAI. where the race was being held. Before the race began, we had the opportunity to have a brief interview with AAI. resident, Sarah Bus Stop Guy to get her opinion on the race. She's quoted for saying, “I think this is going to be a pretty cool . . . event. I just hope it doesn't take so long to begin.” Finally, it was time for the race to begin and the ten-foot race track was set up and gasps were heard from the crowd as the contestants exited the truck and went to the starting line and . . . oh, did I forget to mention that the contestants were tortoises? Yes, you read right: the contestants are tortoises! When I asked Gorge if this event would be any better than other animal racing events such as the Inchworm Inch-a-thon and the Snail Slide-a-thon, his response was, “Oh, much better! Those events are so boring! Three feet in three days, give me a break. And the winner tortoise gets a much bigger prize: blueberries!” Did you know that the audience gets to take part in this race too? They get to vote for which tortoise they think will win the race, and everyone who votes on the tortoise that ends up winning gets to take part in a full-course dessert consisting of the following choices: 100 flavors of ice cream, 1,050 types of candy, 300 different types of cake and about 1,000 other various desserts (the amount of food may seem like a lot, but you also have to remember there were thousands of people in the audience). There were five contestants in this race. There's:

1. Wilbur: #1, the third largest tortoise
2. Destiny: #2, the the fourth largest tortoise
3. Chuck: #3, the largest tortoise
4. Lumber: #4, the second largest tortoise
5. Sophie: #5, the smallest tortoise

With a loud gunshot, the Flame Dashers started the race in a slow and steady pace. The crowd began to cheer and shout loudly. It was a deafening sound! I found this part of the race . . . not boring, but it was pretty interesting. Some of the audience left to get refreshments while the racers “ran” to the halfway mark. By the time the tortoises reached the halfway mark (30 minutes later), they were given a break while some folks gave a halftime concert. Here's a list of the singers and what they sang, respectively:

1. Why I'm So Blue, by Bluebuck and the Bullfrog brothers
2. Barbara Allen, by Bluebuck and Bully the Bullfrog
3. Boola, Boola, by Kay V. Mon and Bullfrog brothers
4. Tomorrow, by Belle Black Bear, Kim Plumbtree & Violet
5. My Country Tis of Thee, led by Gorge Philips
6. God Save the Queen, led by Gorge Philips

After the final song, the second half of the race begun. This second half was technically the tortoises “racing” back to the finish line. Thirty minutes later, it was a tie between Chuck and Lumber and they were desperately to get past the other. They're blockage was causing a traffic jam with the other tortoises . . . except Sophie who raced under the other giants and the race was back on. And the winner is . . . SOPHIE! Her small size helped her reach the finish line and win the reward: a yummy pile of blueberries! The event was a success and Racer's International received lots of donations. “All donations will be going to many organizations,” Gorge explained, “including ones that deal with animal shelters, animal welfare organizations, the National Wildlife Federation, homeless shelters and etc.” Now that the event was over, I took the chance to get an interview with Melody Clark (Sarah Bus Stop Guy's married sister) to get her opinion on the race. Her response was a simple, “Boring.” As for me, I found the race exciting during the end of it when a certain feeling of anticipation was in the air as we waited to see who would win. With the race now over, I think it's safe to say we've added a whole new dimension to the old saying, “Slow and steady wins the race,” because those Flame Dashers were very slow indeed!

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan

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Next Issue: School's Buzzing at Snowflake's Christian School for Animals

Knock, Knock! Who's There? Gator's Here!

This 12-foot alligator attempted to get into the house of Paul and Dianna Wellworth due to smelling barbecued chicken grilling in the backyard. Good thing they checked to see who was ringing the doorbell before opening the door!

Knock, Knock! Who's there? Al. Al who? Alligator's here, my dear! OK, maybe I'm not that good at knock, knock jokes, but this really does apply to what happened last Wednesday. Two Riverville locals named Mr. Paul and Mrs. Dianna Wellworth were out in their backyard enjoying the summer afternoon. To find out exactly what happened, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I went to interview them. “We just thought we'd enjoy the afternoon,” said Paul, “so I . . . popped up the grill and started grillin' barbequed chicken while Dianna read a good book.” It was a rather boring afternoon, so they decided to invite some of the neighbors to enjoy the afternoon grilling with them, so Diana went into the house to make some phone calls and the smell of barbecued chicken floated into the air, and this was bound to attract some attention, maybe even some uninvited dinner guests . . . Within the first 15 minutes, about four-fifths of the neighbors they'd invited arrived and Paul was putting the finishing touches on his BBQ chicken when suddenly, the doorbell rung once again. Dianna is quoted for saying, “So naturally, I went over to get the door since Paul was busy. I originally thought that these were the rest of our dinner guests. As a precaution I . . . [look] out the peephole to make sure I'm opening the door to the right people. But this time, I saw no one there and none of the guests we invited were that short! Next I decided to check out the window that was next to the front door to see who it was, and to my surprise . . . I thought I saw a big scaly lizard at my door!” Dianna went on to explain that she couldn't believe her own eyes. However, her eyes had indeed deceived her, as no lizard was present at her front door step. She went out the backdoor to see this “lizard”, when she found that it wasn't a lizard after all – instead, it was a 12-foot alligator with its body leaning up against the door! It's right front leg was inches from the doorbell! She went back to get her husband and he was pretty surprised as well. “I didn't believe Dianna when she told me a gator was at our door because . . . well, that's just not something alligators normally do!” Paul says. “When the word 'alligator' comes to mind, you think of it stalking in the water not the front door step of an urban neighborhood! And I certainly didn't believe a gator was at our door because, as far as I knew, alligators didn't live up here in New York!” Well, you can be pretty sure that the neighbors Paul and Dianna had invited soon heard about the alligator and they started to use their cameras to take a few photos (and all the while, the alligator was trying to get in the door). Paul decided that before the alligator got ferocious, he'd better call the authorities. So he called the police, and the police got Wildlife Removal Inc. to come have the alligator taken back to where it lived. “I had never heard of such an event,” says Pete Wilkins, one of the wildlife wranglers involved in the alligator's capture. “But we've located where the gator came from, so he'll be back home in no time.” It turned out that the gator wasn't wild, but actually from the local New York Africa Zoo (his keeper apparently forgot to lock the cage). Upon his return, the alligator is now happily swimming in the Gator Pond exhibit with his pond-mates and Paul, Dianna and their invited neighbors were finally were able to have their chicken dinner in peace. But why on earth would the alligator come to the Wellworth's in the first place? We put that question to zookeeper Manny Minlens, and she's quoted for saying, "Alligators have a superb sense of smell and the smell of barbecuing chicken probably lured our gator to their house and tried in vain to get into the house." All, I as the reporter can say is that, after reporting on a story like this, it's a fair bet that I'll always remember to see who is knocking before opening the front door!

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond

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We here at Smiley’s News, I have been working night and day to get articles ready. I could really use some help! So we are looking for people interested in writing (especially kids and teens). If you are interested, PLEASE(!) send an email to animaladventures@aol.com and save me from working night and day! I’m exhausted!

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Next Issue: Codes, Codes, Codes . . . and More Codes!