May 23, 2009

He was first spotted along the Chickasawhay River carrying a beaver in his mouth. Then for 51 years, he lived placidly in the pond of a Brooklyn family and became, in the process, a local phenomenon.

Now Chopper, the 11-foot long, 500-pound pet alligator, is mourned. He died at his home May 11 of what is presumed to be a case of old age.

Carness Archer Sr., captured the alligator in 1958. In a 1977 Hattiesburg American article, he explained that he had heard someone wanted to buy an alligator for $1,000. So he and a friend combed Black Creek and then the Chickasawhay before capturing one.

Archer, then 48, ended up keeping it for himself, putting him on a length of chain in the front yard of his five-acre property. A rubber hose cushioned the chain around his neck.

Daughter Shearon Archer Saucier, 65, remembers her surprise at the new family pet.

"It was totally out of the realm of my thinking that daddy would bring home an alligator," she said.

Saucier said she preferred to observe Chopper from a distance. Not so her father.

"He would feed him by hand," she said. "Sometimes he would sit down by the edge of the pond and talk to him."

Archer died in 1991. His son Carness "Buddy" Archer Jr. took over the property and the care of the alligator, getting help from sister Shearon, along with her children.

By then, Chopper's special place in the community had been well established.

"He was famous when I was in high school," recalled neighbor Glenda Nelson, 65, who said she used to take her First Baptist Church Sunday school class to visit him.

The popularity was widespread.

"I've known coming people come from down on the coast and see him," said neighbor Tony Perkins, 66.

In the process, stories circulated. One is that Chopper escaped his chain one night and meandered his way to a girls' dormitory at Forrest County Agricultural High School for reasons unknown.

There are other more-recent stories, just as mysterious to contemplate. Two days before Hurricane Katrina struck, Saucier recalls Chopper digging a hole for himself at the pond's bottom and then submerging beneath the water.

He didn't come up until the storm passed.

"They say that animals can sense things," she said, "and I guess that's what he was doing."

And, of course, there's the story of his age. Carness Archer Sr. speculated that at the time of his capture Chopper was 100. This would make him 150 at the time of his death, unfathomable given that most alligators have a lifespan of 50-60 years in captivity.

Whatever his final tally, it's not hard to understand why the years piled up. Chopper dined well, feasting on dead armadillos, possums or other roadkill brought by the kindness of strangers.

With old age came human attachment. Chopper was buried in the back yard of the Archer home.

"It's like a losing a friend," Nelson said.

Saucier goes even further.

"He was just like a member of the family, she said, tearing up for a moment. "It's been difficult on everybody since he's been gone."

[sidenote]
CHOPPER lived in a pond in Brooklyn. The alligator died recently. The alligator was a sort of tourist attraction around Brooklyn and was the Archer family pet for 51 years. [/sidenote]