This Raccoon Photographed Riding An Alligator Is Like A Disney Movie Come To Real Life

OCALA, Fla. — A Palatka man said he snapped a picture of a raccoon on top of an alligator in the Ocala National Forest Sunday morning.

Richard Jones said he and his family were walking along the Oaklawaha River watching alligators when his son walked through some palm fronds to get a good picture.

Jones said his son must have startled the raccoon, which stumbled toward the water and hopped on top of the gator that was nearby.

“I snapped a lucky picture right when the gator slipped into the water and before the raccoon jumped off and scurried away. Without the context you’d think the raccoon was hitching a ride across the river. Pretty amazing,” Jones said in an email. “Definitely the photo of a lifetime.”

What a great photo, definitely top Tinder picture material for the raccoon. This is one of the times though that I wish we had a Sopranos situation where the art is allowed to just speak for itself. I didn’t want to know that the raccoon was only on there for a second, hopped off and that was all of their whirlwind romance. I wanted to imagine a world where this raccoon is voiced by Kevin Hart and the alligator is a world weary Matt Dillon and they strike up a friendship mostly told through comical misadventures and song. Maybe a scene where they grow apart and come back together to learn a lesson or two about what friendship truly means and that just because you’re different species doesn’t mean you can’t be family. Instead it’s like “Oh yeah it was a second and the alligator didn’t even notice he was on top of him also the raccoon died of rabies ten seconds later” and that kind of ruins it. Keep a little more mystery amongst the self fellatio next time, Richard.