A Poor dead Rat I found in my house when I tore down a wall.
It is possible that it was 'Erica Shield the Rat', a rat we named because we
kept noticing it running around our house and leaving little turds all over
the kitchen. Erica Shield the Rat ate dog food out of Hudi's bowl as well as
other food he found lying about. One day we left him some "special"
food that made him very sick and he died. For a long time I thought he was too
smart to eat the little arsenic treat we left out and, I must admit, I had a
certain respect for him. But I was incorrect. He had eaten it.
The only reason there is question as to whether this particular dead rat is
Erica Shield the Rat is because it is the SECOND dead rat to be found in our
walls.
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I was half asleep and I opened the hall closet to get a jacket. I saw, just out of the corner of my eye, a slither. It was like a snake, but I didn't jump or anything. It happened too fast. I just froze and stared at where I thought I had seen it. I noticed a triangular shaped hole where books and stuff were leaning against the wall on the top shelf above all the coats and things. It formed a cave of sorts. This is where I had seen movement. I was sure I had seen movement, but maybe something had just fallen.
Later that day I opened the closet again, this time looking right at the cave and there it was. This time there was no mistake, I saw a fully grown brown rat slither out of the triangle and back down the back of the coats. I was again too stunned to move.
That night I told of this rat to the wife and frightened children. I talked of it's grace, speed, and incredible size. The children were noticably distraught. The wife simply did not believe. I wasn't sure I believed myself, so we went to the closet. I told her where to direct her attention and quickly swung open the closet and there it was. Plain as day. A large brown rat darted out of it's cave towards us and then disapeared down the back of all the winter coats.
She screamed, of course. She was as shocked that I had been telling the truth as she was at seeing a predictable rodent in her house. I was shocked also- but this time I was shocked that I had actually seen it three times in one day.
So after seeing thier mother actually scream and then break into cursing, the children began to feel genuine alarm. They were now worried for real. So I made the whole thing funny. It was kind of funny already, as long as we didn't dwell on things like disease, rat shit on our winter coats, or how to get rid of it. I instead named it and made a little song with a Sesame Street tune:
"Sometimes.......when you open the hall closet.... a rat jumps out......."
You get the idea. The children were beginning to calm down and laugh a little, but the horror they felt at knowing that living verman lurked in the dark shadows of the hall closet was still in thier sleepy little minds at bedtime that night. "Will it come out?", "Do they bite children?"....etc.
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