Original Source

Nine-year-old Alisa Solnit logs onto the video conference call clutching a stuffed green alligator that is wearing a pirate cape.

“Her name is Captain Snugglepants,” says Alisa, who later estimates that the Captain is one of about a “million” such alligator toys that she has in her home in San Jose.

Yes, this fourth-grade student at Yavneh Day School in Los Gatos is head over heels for ‘gators. She’s been that way so long she can’t even remember how it started.

“I might have forgotten because I’ve loved them since I was just 2 years old,” says Alisa, who lives in San Jose with mom Helen, dad Jonathan, sister Talia, dog Pretzel and leopard gecko Banana. “But once I became 5, I started reading about them and it gave me more and more reasons of why I thought they were so interesting.”

Alison is so taken with alligators that she believes expressing affection for the semi-aquatic reptiles should form the basis of a national holiday. It’s an idea that has been wholeheartedly endorsed by a national music/theater group known as the Story Pirates, which converted her idea into the incredibly catchy song by Jack Mitchell — “Hug an Alligator Day” — that is now part of new music release titled “Very Merry Made-Up Holidays, Vol. 1.” It’s available through Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming/download services.