Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Missed it by this much




Rats are an incredibly designed creature and a worthy opponent on every level, and many of my long time readers are aware of the mixed feelings I have about them.  Sometimes I hate them, but sometimes I love them, and in reality all they are is another visitor to this island called Manhattan just trying to find a comfortable place to live and trying to find something good to eat, and maybe trying to find someone to love.

This guy was caught right behind a nice Upper East Side restaurant.  The restaurant management wants to put a beer garden out back, but to do so we have to evict the current tenants back there, and in fact the eviction will be more of a genocide.

However, the rats that we are catching are the weaker, smaller ones, and the stronger, bigger ones are avoiding the traps and are laying low beneath the surface, perhaps moving underground and heading toward the Asian restaurant next door.  So the genocide will be limited in scope to be sure, and the bigger, badder rats will relocate and repopulate.

This guy got caught with a chocolate candy bar.  Sometimes I'll use beef jerky or slim jims.  Sometimes I'll put on some Tribe Called Quest while I'm setting the traps.

The skeleton of the rat is more malleable than many other vertebrate creatures of its size and body type, and that allows it to squeeze through the smallest of holes, cracks, crevices, pipes, etc., but it also means that when the trap hits the head (as in the picture above) the skull isn't really all that broken, just squeezed apart in two different directions.

Sometimes after I catch a nice rat like this, I'll carry it around with me for a while and swing it back and forth, and I'll act like I'm a baton twirler in the big parade.  And I'll feel so beautiful and special, just like I'm the prom queen again.

I'll be getting back to work now.  I hope your day is going well.

Ew York City will be back tomorrow if I feel like it.

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