Fighting an alligator to save a dog

Many parents give pets to their sons and daughters to teach responsibility. Not many parents can say their offspring fought an alligator to save a pet.
Pat and Beth Dupuy can.
Their 17-year-old, Jean Pat, jumped into waist-high water in a ditch Saturday to get his long-haired dachshund, Guitara, away from a 6-foot alligator.
Guitara didn’t make it. Neither did the alligator, which was rounded up and put down by animal control authorities the next day.
The Dupuys are religious, and Beth Dupuy said the incident made her think of the Bible story about David the shepherd boy.
“I always told him God had something for him,” she said. “I think it was at that point that he saw there was some truth to it.”
Guitara had been a present to Jean Pat from a grandparent 11 years ago. The boy and the dog grew close.
“They both had similar personalities, except when she was barking all the time,” Beth Dupuy said. “They’re both pretty laid back and chill. …
“She loved the outside and so does Jean Pat, so they were always outside together. She liked to follow everyone. She’d follow me.”
Guitara, also known as WahWah, often stayed next to Jean Pat as he did his homework, and sometimes napped in a hammock in his room in their Cypress Gardens subdivision home. Sometimes Guitara followed Jean Pat to baseball games and ended up in a Tiger Diamond dugout.
The dog had been hit by a car a few years ago, and she was getting on in dog-years. But Beth Dupuy said Guitara was able to keep up with her on a four-mile run recently. She also liked to hang out near the entrance to Cypress Gardens during the day, entertaining the neighbors as she went from tree to tree chasing squirrels.
On Saturday, Jean Pat was fishing in the ditch that runs between Cypress Gardens and Marquis Manor. He said Guitara was playing nearby. At one point she fell into the ditch, Jean Pat said, and he had to pull her out because the banks are steep.
About a half-hour later, “I hear her yell, and I hear a splash,” Jean Pat said. “I ran down the ditch.”
He dove into the water near the splash, and as he came up, he saw Guitara’s nose sticking out of the water.
“I got her, and the alligator has her leg,” Jean Pat said. “I dropped WahWah. I put my hand in its mouth.
“This part’s a little blurry,” he said.
The gator never really bit him, but it did try to get away.
“I tried to get my hands around his neck,” Jean Pat said. “But he’s thrashing around too much. Then he started twisting, and he got away.”
The Dupuys reported the incident to the city to protect children who might be playing in the ditch.
Guitara died later that Saturday. Some of the neighbors came by to share the mourning. Beth Dupuy and Jean Pat had a chance to talk about it, too.
“A lot of people are gifted in a lot of areas,” Beth Dupuy said. “God gave him a special gift. We had a nice talk afterward when we were lying in the grass with the dog.”