Month: September 2025

By Sergio Candido

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    LAND O’LAKES, Florida (WFOR) — A Florida woman is recovering after fighting off an alligator that tried to drag her puppy into a backyard creek.

It happened last week in Land O’Lakes, just 20 miles north of Tampa.

Danie Wright said she was walking her 4-month-old puppy, Dax, behind her house when the attack took place. The two were strolling along a stagnant creek covered in water moss, giving perfect cover for the predator, she told Tampa CBS affiliate WTSP.

“I heard a squeal, and I got pulled,” Wright said. “The alligator had him by his [collar] and dragged him, and I wasn’t gonna let go.”

She said the reptile latched onto Dax’s collar and began dragging him into the water. That’s when Wright went into fight mode.

“I just punched him, punched and punched,” she recalled. “I punched him in the eye enough that he kind of let go, he unclamped a little, and I pulled off, but his teeth dragged down my arm.”

Wright was bitten during the attack but is now recovering.

Trappers and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers later captured the 5-foot alligator and removed it from the property, according to WTSP

“Just be careful with your dogs, you know these alligators are no joke,” Wright, a Floridian for 20 years, warned. “I mean, 15 feet, he came out to get him, and I didn’t see him.”

Thanks to Wright’s quick action, both she and Dax survived the harrowing encounter.

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By Lisa Hughes

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    MASSACHUETTS (WBZ) — A Massachusetts songwriter has written for artists like Reba McEntire and Martina McBride and he shared his inspiration for writing a song with Taylor Swift when she was just starting out.

Inside Robert Ellis Orrall’s backyard studio are bits and pieces of some of the biggest moments in musical history. Including the table card from the night Taylor Swift got her record deal.

“I am a songwriter, because that’s why I started trying to be a musician, because I wanted to write songs,” said Orrall.

But it’s his ability to connect with other artists where his talents truly shine. He met Swift decades ago, when she was about to write her debut album.

“She was 13, 14, 15 [and was on] RCA. She was originally on RCA, a lot of people don’t know that she was on RCA,” said Orrall. “And then they wanted me to write with her so we wrote and then she had fun.”

So how does a 50-year-old man connect with a teenage girl? By writing with his own teenage daughter.

“[She said] ‘I want you to write a song that’s called That’s Not Punk, about Avril Lavigne because it’s not punk, Dad, it’s pop,'” he said. “So I started writing from this point of view.”

A colleague at RCA knew he had been writing for his daughter, and knew he could step up.

“He called me up and he said ‘I’ve got this girl coming over, she’s 13 and you gotta come over and write with me,'” said Orrall.

Little did he know he was on the verge of helping a megastar take her first steps.

“And she walked in and said that she wanted to write a song that was like Avril Lavigne, only country. And I was like get outta here! And we wrote ‘I’m Only Me When I’m with You.’ The first song we ever wrote.”

But even he couldn’t have predicted how far she’d go.

“I’ve written with a lot of young people, but she was pretty extraordinary. Her confidence…she just had a thing. And I told her dad, when he came to pick her up, your daughter’s gonna sell 300 million on her first record, and I was wrong, I was off by like 7 million,” said Orrall.

He also wrote Lindsay Lohan’s “Ultimate” from “Freaky Friday,” which he’s reprised for the recent remake.

“Disney got in touch with me and said we wanna use ‘Ultimate’ in ‘Freakier Friday,'” said Orrall.

Now more than 20 years later, he’s still making music with his band and even has a new album out, “Wrong Thing.”

“I’m just gonna keep making music,” said Orrall.

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