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Eddie Ratslayer! Scourge of rodentkind
Jul. 9th, 2010 03:23 pmI posted this on Facebook a few days ago but I thought it merited the level of extra detail that only LJ can provide...
IN one version of this story (Eddie's), Eddie is a brave warrior who fearlessly hunted out a dangerous rat menace and slew it after an epic battle in river. Something akin to those ancient Celt 'standing in a river throwing spears at each other' single combats that, of course, still happen in some parts of Birmingham these days (despite all the ASBOs issued). The skies may have been red with blood, the earth may have cried out for vengeance and all that jazz. This is nothing unusual, its just how dogs see the world.
In our view of this tale, which may be the more accurate but certainly less interesting version, things are a little more prosaic. While walking in the park, doing our usual evening run after toys style dog walk, we approached the bridge that crosses the river which passes through the park. Well, I call it a river. It's really more of a large stream with delusions of grandeur. In this hot weather, it is usual for Eddie to hare off into the river for a drink and a bit of a splash around. We don't mind him doing this, though we are careful to make sure that he does not take any toys in there with him because he has a tendency to put the toy down in the river while he takes a drink and then get confused as, depending on the toy, it either sinks into the river mud where he cannot retrieve it or floats away too fast for him to chase. We have lost many toys that way.
This time he had no toys and was in the river, hidden by a lot of green stuff that lined the banks. We heard him splashing, but were concerned that it seemed to be louder and more insistant splashing than normal. We were just trying to get a look to see what was happening when we heard the scream.
When we eventually managed to persuade him to come up onto the bank, he was carrying in his mouth a large, black rat and looking very proud of himself (he has a strut in his walk when he is happy and proud of an achievement). It took a bit of effort but we finally managed to get him to drop the rat (which was definitely dead - a clean kill from a classic terrier shake that broke the neck) and dragged him away from his prize.
Luckily, it did not look like the rat had bitten him and it was clear from examining the body that he had not broken the skin of the rat. So two major concerns for disease transmission eliminated. We gave him a fresh flea treatment when we got him home (always a good thing to do after close contact with any wild animal) and the day after I rang the vet to check for any other issues we needed to be aware of. Thankfully, the biggest infection risk from rats was something covered in the annual injections and the other source of concern - was the rat poisoned? - was only an issue if he had eaten any of the rat.
So, a reasonably happy ending for everyone, except the rat...
IN one version of this story (Eddie's), Eddie is a brave warrior who fearlessly hunted out a dangerous rat menace and slew it after an epic battle in river. Something akin to those ancient Celt 'standing in a river throwing spears at each other' single combats that, of course, still happen in some parts of Birmingham these days (despite all the ASBOs issued). The skies may have been red with blood, the earth may have cried out for vengeance and all that jazz. This is nothing unusual, its just how dogs see the world.
In our view of this tale, which may be the more accurate but certainly less interesting version, things are a little more prosaic. While walking in the park, doing our usual evening run after toys style dog walk, we approached the bridge that crosses the river which passes through the park. Well, I call it a river. It's really more of a large stream with delusions of grandeur. In this hot weather, it is usual for Eddie to hare off into the river for a drink and a bit of a splash around. We don't mind him doing this, though we are careful to make sure that he does not take any toys in there with him because he has a tendency to put the toy down in the river while he takes a drink and then get confused as, depending on the toy, it either sinks into the river mud where he cannot retrieve it or floats away too fast for him to chase. We have lost many toys that way.
This time he had no toys and was in the river, hidden by a lot of green stuff that lined the banks. We heard him splashing, but were concerned that it seemed to be louder and more insistant splashing than normal. We were just trying to get a look to see what was happening when we heard the scream.
When we eventually managed to persuade him to come up onto the bank, he was carrying in his mouth a large, black rat and looking very proud of himself (he has a strut in his walk when he is happy and proud of an achievement). It took a bit of effort but we finally managed to get him to drop the rat (which was definitely dead - a clean kill from a classic terrier shake that broke the neck) and dragged him away from his prize.
Luckily, it did not look like the rat had bitten him and it was clear from examining the body that he had not broken the skin of the rat. So two major concerns for disease transmission eliminated. We gave him a fresh flea treatment when we got him home (always a good thing to do after close contact with any wild animal) and the day after I rang the vet to check for any other issues we needed to be aware of. Thankfully, the biggest infection risk from rats was something covered in the annual injections and the other source of concern - was the rat poisoned? - was only an issue if he had eaten any of the rat.
So, a reasonably happy ending for everyone, except the rat...
