Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993                   TAG: 9305290373
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WHITE HALL                                LENGTH: Short

GATOR'S APPEARANCE HAS OFFICIALS STUMPED

The reptiles usually remain in hot, steamy places like Florida's Everglades.

But Fred L. Ivory, 72, was fishing Wednesday about 6:30 p.m. when he said he spotted one about 4 feet long.

"I thought I hooked a log or something," he said. "When he saw me he just went straight down into the water."

Fred Lundmark, 43, who operates a Charlottesville pet shop, said he thinks Ivory might have spotted his cayman, a smaller relative of the alligator. He said his pet was stolen a year ago. Authorities, however, were skeptical of a cayman's ability to survive a winter in Albemarle County.

Lundmark said someone could have been taking care of it or it could have shielded itself from the cold by burrowing into the mud.