During the early 1900's, when Florida snowbirds were often interested in exotic local animals and regulations on keeping them as pets did not exist, the Edisons joined the tropical pet craze. In 1904, Edison's youngest son Theodore, age 6, returned to New Jersey from Fort Myers with five baby alligators that he kept in a tub outside their home, and one afternoon, while his mother Mina was serving tea to a group of ladies in the conservatory, he tried to show them the baby gators but failed to contain all the wrigglers, which slithered under the table and alarmed the guests. In the 1920's, the Edisons introduced peacocks to the grounds and kept a parrot on the property, and June Scarth Mates, the daughter of Edison's chauffeur, recalled Mina sending her to speak kindly to a peacock to get him to display his feathers. Edison also ordered two monkeys as pets for his Seminole Lodge Estate, and Mina said the monkeys were such a great source of amusement to Thomas and Theodore that they soon bought two marmosets as well. In 1910, Theodore wrote of the many animals at Seminole Lodge, including raccoons, a pelican, a pigeon, a dog, a gopher, chickens, a cow, a calf, and two alligators.