Just a little bit more than two years ago, Gonzalo Anzurez was life-flighted to Denver and treated for a broken neck after an auto accident with a city street-sweeper. He was told he may never breathe on his own again. However, he had other plans.

Anzurez had graduated from a local hunter safety class shortly before the accident and wasn’t going to let the near-fatal injury change his plans. Two years later he had a year that would make a hardened hunter blush. He bagged an elk, deer and turkey on local hunts. Then, this past May, he was invited to South Carolina for a special hunt with gator on the menu.

“I was completely in awe because, to be honest, I never really thought I’d hunt something as cool as a gator,” Anzurez said.

The 15 year-old has miraculously been gaining some use in his upper torso — mostly his right shoulder and arm. Anzurez won’t be told he can’t do something and fully intends on building his dexterity for future fun. He can already play video games and use his laptop, though he uses his knuckles to control the mouse until his fingers find their strength.

He can’t pick up a rifle, yet, but he’s working hard for a kid some doctors didn’t think it was worth sending him to physical therapy due to the complete paralysis below the C-4 vertebrae. Currently he has a loyal hunting partner in Wyoming Dream Hunts founder Tev Kelley of Cody. He said the key to Anzurez’s success has been his attitude. The teen, who has kept a calm demeanor through what has changed every aspect of his and his family’s lives, has zero quit in him, Kelley said.

“When you meet him, you’d probably think he’s pretty shy. But in fact, I’d say he’s not shy at all. He’s just observant. He figures things out before he speaks, which we’d all be a little better off if we did that,” Kelley said. “This is all new to him, and you know, that’s a huge change. I think he’s handling it amazingly.”

The alligator hunt tested both of their skills. Kelley lines up the shot and then Anzurez pulls the trigger with a special “sip and puff” trigger, which allows him to activate the trigger with his mouth and lungs. But the target on a gator is very small. A kill shot can only be delivered to the brain — an area the size of a 50-cent piece. And this gator was evasive.

“You’re aiming at the brain, which is half out of the water, half in. Right? And when the bullet hits the water, it’s just this big explosion of water, and then it is gone. You don’t know if it dived or died,” Kelley said. “You can’t even breathe, or the gator is going to take off, but we were able to make a perfect shot on it, which does take definite coordinated teamwork. I’m aiming the rifle, but I’m not pulling the trigger, and so I have to be able to speak to him without moving. And he’s got to hit it when I say. A second or two delay is likely a miss.”

The reveal came after guides with the Outdoor Dream Foundation (which sponsored the trip) cast out giant treble hooks on heavy-duty fishing poles, snagging the dead gator and reeling it in. On the hook was a giant.

It was an 11-foot, 6-inch gator, which is one of the biggest the property owners had seen in over 30 years.

Kelley said Wyoming hunters can possibly relate to gator hunting by imagining an undetected grizzly bear waiting underwater near shore to snatch their next meal.

This gator was smart and constantly hungry. Instead of dining on raccoons and fish, the monster gator instead chose to eat smaller gators.

It took until Aug. 21 for Anzurez to get his meat butchered and shipped to Powell. Kelley hosted a party to taste the meat of the dinosaur nearly twice his size (Anzurez is 6 feet tall) and weighing in at a staggering 500-600 pounds.

Anzurez better like the meat. There’s going to be a lot of it to finish. And he’s looking for wall space to display the hide and head. The trophy will be shipped to him when finished, but it’s a long process.

“It takes them a while to process the head and the hide, so they should have it ready in about a year, if not a year and a half,” Anzurez said.

Fortunately, he has a big appetite. Kelley learned quickly that you need to keep the growing boy full to avoid a serious case of hangriness.

“He is the ultimate partner, but you don’t feed him, and you’ll pay for it,” Kelley quipped.

He didn’t even get a chance to put a picture on the brag board at the high school because the hunt happened at the end of the school year.

Anzurez credits spending time outdoors in part for his miraculous physical improvements. He feels unfettered outdoors.

“I feel more freedom outdoors than here in town or in my room or anywhere, really,” Anzurez said.

Anzurez is determined to continue improving and his quads are firing under stimulation, which gives him hope.

“His body is trying to heal, but insurance will not pay to have him go to a rehab facility,” mom Cindy Anzurez said. “It’s very difficult once you come home.”

The treatments are about $45,000 out of pocket. Yet, with five kids in the family and the expenses piling up over the past two years, Cindy was not sure if or when they could afford the testing and PT. Yet, she wasn’t alone, she said.

“What the community did to help Gonzalo was so amazing, and that’s one of the reasons why we love living here,” Cindy said.

Community members — most of them complete strangers — donated money and time to help. Now the Anzurez family wants to give back. One way they are giving back is by using the used bus they purchased to get Gonzalo around in his wheelchair to help other disabled community members.

“We just want to give back however we can,” she said. “He’s a great young man and he has a kind heart. So, it’s nice to see him be able to do the things that he loves.”

On the back of the bus is a bumper sticker Gonzalo recently made, saying “When life takes your mobility, just roll with it.”

For more information, visit Wyoming Dream Hunts on Facebook.