Officials are working to help this alligator with a knife in its head, thank god

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this one raises just as many questions. Last week, Texan Erin Weaver spotted a gator in Pumpkin Lake, in the town of Sugar Land, Texas, swimming along just fine except for one thing: There was a knife sticking out of its head.

“I love animals, especially our gators around here,” Weaver told local station KPRC 2 Click2Houston.“He kind of turned and came right towards me and he swam right over there, right along the rock here, and he sat here and there was actually a knife, it looked like a steak knife, sticking out of his head.” Weaver posted a picture to the local Facebook page, only to discover that other Sugar Land residents are concerned about the gator as well.

So many questions: How? Why? Could a gator get a knife stuck in its head accidentally? (Seems rather tricky.) If not: Who would actually do such a thing? Besides just being cruel, you’d also have to get close enough to a gator to stuck a knife in its head without having that gator come after you. And how is the gator apparently unharmed by this alien appendage?

NBC News reports that the Fort Bend County Game Warden’s Office found the gator on Friday. “It may be removed and taken for observation depending on the severity of its injuries.” Also, charges may be filed, if they can figure out who’s responsible. Meanwhile, we’ll chalk its survival up to the general badassery of gators and let this nonplussed gator be an inspiration to us all.