What I'm Reading

Thanks for the tip, offered by another Baltimorean about how to catch rats (with fried chicken). Haven't been posting lately as this has been a surprisingly busy time for me. Right now I am reading a book called "A Colongy of Citizens: Revolution & Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804," by Laurent Dubois. I'm only a couple chapters in and it is pretty interesting so far. Any book with this long a title was not meant to be a best seller. It seems by giving your book this long a title you say, "this is for academics only, normal reader do not bother to pick this up!" Thus shooting yourself in the foot sales wise. If I had written this book I would have called it: "Blood in the Caribbean" or something like that. Unfortunately I have no time to read books of my choice these days, but in that vain, what are you all reading out there? (By you all I mean my three faithful readers of course.)

I give up.

Rat you win...I give up. From now on I will just throw a cup of dogfood down the basement steps for your to enjoy. Damn rat. Have to go rewrite a paper on the "Progressive Movement, neither progressive nor a movement, talk amongst yourselves." My professor started class with this old SNL joke.

Day 18-The Hunt

Dear Diary,
We have been on the hunt now for eighteen days and still no sign of the beast. We thought the ice , rain and partially flooded basement would drive it up the steps and into our snare, but alas, it is a smart devil. I have begun to call him "Great White" and he haunts my dreams. He left his trail of excrement across the basement floor as if to tease me, taunt me to catch him. He takes the bate outside our cutting edge trap, and yet leaves the bounty inside undisturbed. Where did you learn such tricks "Great White?" How shall I catch thee and end this tragic play? You are here and not here, perhaps a ghost of a rat. I will catch you.

Rats

Hunting rats is hard!

Whoever said Baltimore rats are stupid. After a couple weeks with the rat zapper we are still without our first catch. They took the food I left out in front as an enticement, but apparently are scared to go in. We're not too worried because so far they are confined to the basement, probably because our dog is so ferocious (see picture). Any suggestions on what to bait the trap with? I have been using dog food and doggy bacon. I thought who could resist? I am starting to suspect that the rats are so well fed they don't need my little morsels, kind of like the sharks in an aquarium who are fed so well they don't eat the other fish. Maybe I need to provide them with some stimulation, like a large hamster tower, and just put the rat zapper at the end. Stay tuned...

Rats...

Living in Baltimore rats are just a part of life. I once read a story in the paper about a seedy bar that hosted rat-fishing contests as a promotion. They would bait-up a hook and go out into the alley behind the bar and see who could catch the biggest rat. Unfortunately, the health department or animal control did not see the humor in the whole thing and put a stop to it. We have rats in our back yard and possibly (I like to keep the possibility alive that it is happy bunnies eating our dog treats and not disgusting rats) in our house. When I lived downtown I once had a rat in my apartment for a few days that pulled itself off of the glue trap before I could get to it with my tennis racket. (A feat my turtle could not replicate, getting off the glue trap that is, I didn't beat him with the racket....sad Mr. T.) We just ordered the best rat trap ever....The "Rat Zapper Deluxe." It electrocutes the rats humanely and is fast. (Animal rights activists please complain in the posts section of this blog.) I will keep you up to date. My question is does anyone have any bright ideas about how to get the rats out of my backyard, since my dog eats their waste. (Which may explain the cranberry like thing that grew on the inside of her ear.)