Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Baby Rat

              
Rats are a nuisance to regular households. They break through food packages, bite furnitures, and wherever they go there would be traces of their wastes. As obvious as their presence is, they are seldom seen by humans as they are mostly active during night.

Yesterday, however, I had an encounter with a black baby rat, which I saw on the counter in the kitchen. It was very small—its body length was only about 7 centimeters long—and this was the reason that I deduced that it must have been a baby. Anyway, seeing it immediately reminded me of the annoyance that its family had done in the past, and I decided that I must catch it.

This was a hard task though. The baby rat moved very swiftly and it was not very easy to spot in the clusters of objects on the counter. It hid so perfectly that for one moment I even believed that it had left the counter. But no, it couldn't escape— the counter was too tall for it to jump onto the ground, and it wasn't big enough to jump onto the cupboard either. So I waited.

When I finally saw it again, I started to watch it more carefully to ensure that I would always know where it was. I also removed the dish tray to give myself a better view. At the same time, I tried to usher it to the corner so that I could catch it more easily. With some struggle, it finally moved into the corner. At that moment, I took out the plastic container that I had prepared, and knocked on the wall so that it would go toward the direction of the container. It did, but it was smart in the way that it hesitated for a long time when it was at the edge of the container, as if it knew that going into the container would result in its defeat. It only went in the container when I knocked the wall even harder.

Fiercely I flipped the container so that it was upright and that the rat couldn't escape. I then opened the door, and flung the container so that the rat would fall out. As I saw its body flying in the darkness, I closed the door.
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I am pretty sure that it didn't come back, because I put shoes in front of the door in a way that it could not enter from the bottom.  However, obviously I have no idea how it is right now, or even if it is still alive...

(Note: I used this image when drawing the picture)

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