Sunday, November 30, 2008

Another Rat Tale

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It all started with this Christmas cactus which measured over 30 inches across when this picture was taken a couple of years ago. Recently, B had put it in his shed to protect it from the cold. He had carefully covered it. When he checked on it yesterday, he found a critter had gotten into the shed and under the cover and destroyed a large part of the center of the plant.

So last night he set the Havahart trap and baited it with corn chips. This morning he found a large rat inside. It is not as large as the rat he caught in there last year.

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As with the other one, we took him away from houses to set it free in a field/woods/swamp area. When B opened the trap, the rat did not want to leave the cage. Finally, it came out in a hurry and....

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jumped straight at me!

I, in turn, jumped, too!

It ran up under the truck and into a wheel well, where it seemed content to stay.

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From there it would venture out, only to run into each wheel in its turn.

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It was really pretty funny. Despite our best efforts, we were out there a good fifteen minutes with B and our son and me all trying to get the rat to run to a safe place.

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Finally, after this last shot, it ran down into the ditch where we had originally tried to send it.

B said it had been trying to memorize the tire scent, so it could follow us back home. So in an effort to sidetrack it, we took our garbage to the landfill before we came back home. Surely, there are other friends to be made there.

3 comments:

David said...

Love the action shot! Little thing is actually kinda cute.

Dani said...

That action shot is great!

I'm in awe of your Christmas Cactus, I never have any luck with them.

Anonymous said...

Y'all have the most interesting pets!