Photos of remaining gator and security enclosure at URL

THE TRUTH (Elkhart, Indiana) 19 August 05 Warning: Goshen gator on the loose - Please don't step on it (Susan Lakes)
Photo: Where's my buddy? (Susan Lakes)
Goshen: A little boy isn't sure if it's Princess or Prince who went missing Tuesday. He just knows one of his pet alligators disappeared from a little wading pool in the yard, and he wants the reptile back.
"I hold them and play with them and stuff like that," said 9-year-old Dalton York.
"If you find it, try to find us and bring it back," he pleaded.
The remaining gator misses its mate of more than a year, too.
"They talk to each other in some weird way," the boy said. "The one that's still there, it just stays in one spot now under the bricks."
Dalton noticed the gator was missing Tuesday on his way out to do some early morning fishing.
"I went out there and there was just one," he said. "I was looking around, and I thought the raccoons had got it."
His mom, Vestine York, came up with some other theories on how the 11/2-foot gator cleared the side of the pool and escaped.
"I don't know, unless he crawled on top of the turtle and got his front feet on top of the pool," she said. "The pool is slick."
Or, rainwater could have flooded the pool, making the escape possible, she said.
Dalton is expanding his search now that he heard the rumor someone in Wakarusa spotted a gator crossing the road near C.R. 36 and C.R. 111 -- and snapped a photo of it -- on Tuesday.
The rumor is true. Jessica Farmwald confirmed with The Truth on Thursday she spotted the wayward gator and was going to give Dalton a call to let him know.
"I'm surprised it didn't head for the creek behind the house, not the road," said the boy's grandmother, Edith Clayton.
Creeks and ponds are where Dalton finds food for the gators. "We catch a whole bunch of minnows in a trap," said Dalton.
Feeding Prince and Princess minnows are more economical than previous store-bought diets. "They used to go through $3 a day in gold fish," Vestine said.
The pets were just a few inches long when Dalton's father, Jeff York, bought them for $60.
Prince and Princess spend their days either swimming around in the pool outside or in the one in the garage. When the weather turns cold, they go to a tank inside the house.
Goshen gator on the loose - Please don't step on it