Everything Needs a Home and Some Victuals

During this world wide coronavirus pandemic, we have been reminded of profound suffering. Due to the needed social-distancing and 'stay at home' policies, people have been without income and the unemployment numbers have skyrocketed. All levels of education are compromised, ceremonial customs such as graduations, weddings, memorial services along with sporting events and entertainment offerings have been suspended or canceled.

Another major social activity that has taken a gigantic hit is the restaraunt eating experience. Unfortunately, we are cautioned that many of those eateries will not survive the 'time out.' A side bar negative to the restaraunt closures may soon be causing a rodent invasion in your neighborhood. I kid you not. It is reported that the pandemic, which finds restaraunts closed and less food waste in City dumpsters is causing rats to venture out from their normal 'ranges' in search of survival.

I've had experience in this matter and I'll share one rat-counter method. Back in the 1950's, neighborhoods put trash cans and garbage containers at the back of our homes in that small alley way between properties. Some local fellow in a dump truck came around and picked up our trash/garbage and took it to a dump site. I also remember old man, 'Snuffy' who drove a horse pulled wagon down the alley once a week. I liked talking to 'Snuffy' as long as I was not standing downwind.

One spring, my father built a nice brick bar-b-q fireplace near the back alley. We bar-b-qued two or three times that summer but soon we were using that pit to burn trash and some garbage. You guessed. Before long a family of rats found a happy home. One early morning, mother pointed out the kitchen window showing my father the playful antics of eight or nine healthy looking rats engaged in a game of tag. The next day, my dad told me to accompany him to 'the pit' and suggested I bring a baseball bat. Dad backed the 1950 Bel Air Chevy up close to the pit and hooked one end of a tube-hose to the tail pipe and stuck the other end down one rat hole. It wasn't long before dazed rats stumbled out of other openings. I believe dad was five-for-five that day while I went 3-for-4...One rat ran by me to the neighbor's garage. That was the only time dad and I went hunting together.