WATCH: Alligator spotted in Arkansas rice field after heavy rain, floods

It may be time to switch up the old expression, "It's raining cats and dogs."

Recent storms in northeastern Arkansas displaced a much more fearsome four-legged creature – a 9-foot alligator.

Posted by Aaron Thomas on Thursday, May 9, 2019

Frank Pierce told KAIT-TV that he and some family members spotted the reptile in a Jackson County rice field Thursday after heavy rain flooded rivers in the area.

"When we first got the call, we thought, well, this is some kind of prank or a log or something because you don't see gators this far north," Jackson County Sheriff David Lucas told KAIT.

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Officials responded and saw the unlikely visitor for themselves.

After contacting the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, authorities tried to catch the gator to no avail. It eventually slipped away, fleeing into a ditch, KAIT reported.

"There's a chance you'll never lay eyes on him again," Mark Barbee, a wildlife biologist with the Game and Fish Commission, told KAIT.

Pierce told the news station that he also saw a 4-foot alligator in the same field Thursday.

If you see an alligator, you shouldn't approach it, Lucas warned. Instead, call the Game and Fish Commission or the Sheriff's Office.