Rats Are More Intelligent Than We Think
I heard this story from a retired gamekeeper, who was very much a proper countryman, after I said I had had a stroke and was on Warfarin.
When you raise chickens, especially free-range ones outside, rats can be a problem, as there’s nothing they like better than a nice piece of chicken.
So Warfarin is put down to poison the rats.
Anybody like me, who is on the drug, knows you must ignore Vitamin K, which is found in leafy green vegetables. I do generally eat my five a day, but they are mainly fruit, tomatoes, beetroot, beans and potatoes.
Apparently, modern chicken feed contains high levels of itamin K, as there are probably a lot of green forage crops in its ingredients.
So as the rats are also looking for their vegetables to go with the chicken, they’re eating the chicken feed.
And the Vitamin K in the chicken feed, could be giving them protection against the rat Warfarin-based rat poinson.
I also suspect, there could be a bit of natural selection at work!
A Visit From A Clean Rat
I saw the rat scamper across the kitchen and luckily I had a camera handy, as he went down the stairs.
A Visit From A Clean Rat
He didn’t seem too unfriendly, but I wish he’d stop eating my bananas.
You’re Always Close To A Rat In London
It is always said, that in London you’re never far away from a rat. This article on the BBC asks if we’re never more than six feet away from a rat.
Six feet is a large distance compared to the close encounter, I’ve just had during my bath.
My bathroom isn’t completed yet, despite being started nearly two years ago. The bath works, but the toilet hasn’t been fitted yet and there is just a hole into the drains.
As I sat up in the bath, something brown and moving caught my eye on the floor.
It wasn’t a very large example, but I know a rat when I see one. In fact, it looked pretty healthy compared to some that my cats brought in, whilst I was living in Suffolk.
But it was probably less than a metre away from my eyes.
I was just on the point of thinking I should get out of my bath, so I pulled the plug and my only slightly dirty bathwater went down the drain, hopefully showing the rat where to go.
I suspect I should turn myself into the RSPCA, as I’ve probably been guilty of inflicting pain and suffering on an animal.
At least if he or she does come back, they”ll have had a good bath in reasonably warm water!
And We Think We Have Food Safety Problems!
This story from the BBC about rat meat in China, makes me think we’re lucky. I like this paragraph.
I heard one anecdote about a restaurant in southern China that serves up rat meat dishes. Believe me these establishments do exist.
At this particular restaurant, the owners reassured the customers their rats had been caught in the countryside and not in the sewers.
Incidentally, when I visited London’s sewers, I didn’t see one rat.
A Mouse In The Studio
Shelagh Fogarty has just been interrupted on BBC Radio 5 Live, by a mouse running around the studio.
What a bimbo! Judging by her reaction!
It’s what you get when you move the BBC to a rodent-infested part of the North.
I’ve Got a Pet
But it’s only a mus musculus in the kitchen. Cheeky sod!
I think it’s more humane to trap them live and then take them to a research institute, so they can benefit all life.
More Mice From God?
I don’t know what our friend from yesterday would say about this story in tonight’s Standard! Perhaps the mice were feeling cold and needed somewhere to bed down and the actress’s cleavage beckoned.
But they would have had to cross the river!
Mice in Tesco Was Plague From God
This article in the Standard, entitled, Mice plague ‘God’s reply’ to gay gift, is about a religious zealot, who claims that God got back at Tesco because they backed London’s Gay Pride march.
How ridiculous! Did God ring him up and tell him? Or does God have a Facebook or Twitter account?
Has anybody asked God, if he or she is gay and got an answer that can be proven? After all, if there is only one God, they could be gay, straight or bi-sexual and probably wouldn’t know. But if they are the only one, they are definitely lonely.
The Anonymous Widower 