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Thursday,
April 1, 2004 |
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The
story of Dick the cat and the rats in my house
Carlos
Alvarado is a senior education major from Weslaco.
Last
March, I found out about rats in my house. I am thankful
to my cat Dick, who decided to “do the right thing”
and inform me vermin were in my house and where they were.
I did wonder why he did it. I noticed how he was spending
less time with the other cats. Was he angry at them about
something? Is he really so concerned about my well being?
He is, after all, a cat who dropped the ball as well.
I turned on the light where he said they were and the
rats scurried all about. Upon further investigation, I
found rat droppings, nasty little spots, and the vermin
even gnawed wood and the cables to my stereo speakers.
I was outraged. My first instinct was to lay out the traps
and get rid of the vermin who invaded my home. I wanted
answers from my cats instead.
I have more than one cat and while I appreciate their
company, I feed and care for them because they are supposed
to protect me from things like this. I set up a commission
to figure out why they dropped the ball and allowed this
invasion to take place.
The cat who came forth tried to give me the answers but
I didn’t want to hear it from him, I wanted to hear
it from his friends, the ones responsible for most of
the carnage. Dick did issue an apology for the actions
to try to console me, but again, I questioned his intentions.
Dick’s apology is not going to make me feel any better
about what happened.
I did feel good about what he told me. Dick said that
the cats were more concerned about the birds in the backyard
then they were about the rats. Apparently, Dub 2, one
of my other cats, is in charge and you see his father,
Dub 1, hated the birds in the backyard when he was the
leader of my cats as well. The cats knew of the rat threat
but would spend countless afternoons leering out the windows
and plotting the birds’ demise.
I called for the cats to answer to my charges. I wanted
the truth, and some came forth, but they had no answers
for me. I received only smooth talking and fancy dancing.
These cats were hiding something, and I could see that
Arroz, perhaps my smartest cat was indeed holding back.
She refused to come forth. Instead she went to all my
friends and neighbors and stated her case. She said she
would love to testify and “I said come on over”,
but she couldn’t under code of Cat law.
Before I knew it my cats were talking to all my neighbors,
friends and family members, pleading their case, yet none
of them said anything that calmed any of my concerns.
I grew tired of it all. I wanted answers and got only
a bunch of cats more concerned about the comforts of their
home than of their responsibilities as cats. I laid some
traps cleaned up the mess and brought some new cables.
The cats ran out of time, because that November I decided
to just get rid of them and move on. I got a dog and hoped
that he can do a better job of keeping rats out of my
home.
Unfortunately the cat’s legacy will remain for some
time because I have a lot of pissed off birds in my backyard. |
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