Then I thought "Didn't I have an extra tomato there?" I keep any fruit that needs to further ripen on my counter top instead of the refrigerator. At any rate I needed to go to my local produce store. My friend Nancy shops every day at the open market and berates me for paying too much at my local little store. Yes, the open market is less expensive and there is a much larger selection as it covers a whole city block, but it is 4 or 5 blocks away, while my little store is only one block away. As I have told you, I am very lazy. To put it in further perspective, you should know what it cost. I bought 3 tomatoes
Back home I placed the papaya and tomato on the counter under the window. The following morning half of one tomato had been eaten by something. A rat would be a logical conclusion, but I sweep and mop my own floors and have never seen a rat turd (and I know what a rat turd looks like). What I do have are dropping (shit) from geckos. They are cute tiny lizards who crawl all over the walls and across the ceiling. They also eat insects, so no one bothers then here, but they do get into everything leaving their calling cards (shit).
Well, something had to be done, so I brought down the rat trap I had purchased a year ago that never caught a thing. I cleaned it up, placed the half tomato and some bacon inside (Someone told me rats love bacon) I placed it in the open window. That window is never closed. I used to have a problem with cats crawling in for there was a corrugated tin roof just below the window from an old abandoned house. The rood collapsed two years ago and no cats since. I thought nothing would be able to reach the window, but today I noticed that there is a small narrow ledge just below the window from where the roof used to connect with my wall. What ever it was I was hoping it would fit into my rat trap. We have a very strange animal that looks like a furry opossum or an enormous rat that I have spotted crawling along the brick wall about 20 feet away from me
The next morning while waking up and waiting for my coffee I notice that indeed I did have a rat in my trap. He was not as big or black as the one that scared me half to death a year ago, but nasty looking. He was frantically trying to break through to metal cage. I moved him off my window ledge and carried him to my balcony. Now, what to do?? There was still a lot of food in there so it could take a week for him to stave to death. I was not about to let him go, so "how to kill him". I thought of calling my "ant man" who sprays my apartment every six months to see if he could gas him to death. But I really did not want to pay 200 pesos just to kill him. I got out some Raid and covered him with it. He foolishly tried to lick it off. Within 30 minutes he had calmed down and looked like he was going to take a nap (a long one I hoped). But he recovered, so I sprayed him again, and again.
Now you may think that all this is very cruel, but what were my options. I could put the whole trap in a plastic bag, but we do not have trash bins. I have to drop him on the corner. The homeless go through the bags and I couldn't take the chance on his getting out. Of course I could carry him down the street and dump him someone else's backyard, but that didn't seem like a good idea anyway. I then thought of another option. I could drop the cage in a bucket of water. But frankly if I was offered the options of dying by drowning or poison, I would take the poison. But after spraying him and waiting for him to die all day long, I decided to put him out of his misery. I filled a bucket of water and dropped him in. I don't think he suffered too long but just to make sure I left him up there and took a nap (heartless bastard that I am).
When I went back up to the terrace for my evening cocktail, he was indeed dead. Now all I had to do was to dump him in a plastic bag and leave him at the corner. But I decided to let it wait until morning. Once I start my evening cocktails I do not want to spoil the glow with a rat disposal. I even thought of leaving the corpse up there as a warning to his relatives. But that seemed too disgusting even to me. I ignored him until the next day. Now I do not want you to think that we are over run with rats here. In five years I have encountered three rats (outside or inside). The dozen stray cats living in the jungle behind me probably keeps the rat population down. Maybe this rat crawled up my wall to get away from the cats. BIG MISTAKE !!
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