Primeau & Grose: Behind the Scenes

Story in the SUN this morning has a rather beguiling photo of a rat. Of course it’s no Stuart Little but still, he is rather cute with his little buck teeth and all. The whole province is in a frenzy because someone spotted a bunch/gaggle/group/family/whatever of rats in the Medicine Hat dump. Apparently they do know where the pickings are good!

I digress. Nineteen ‘common’ Norway rats. Obviously with our rat free status they can’t be too common. We did what we do when rats appear, kill them and then go on high alert, lest any more vermin try to infiltrate this great province. There are those who think this stringent attitude is silly, but rats have a habit of playing rabbits. Trust me, without and help from adult movies they can reproduce like rabbits!! The damage they do to farmers is unbelievable so our vigilance is warranted. And face facts, they like to travel with disease as a running buddy. So our rat patrols saddles up and scours the country side, dare the little critters start moving westward.

Have you ever seen a rat? Unless you travel east or perhaps are standing on a sketchy dock in Vancouver you likely haven’t. Researchers use them for lab studies. Clearly they are closer to us than we’d like to admit. Maybe, given the crime rate, rats aren’t so invisible in this province or country. We have gang violence, drug lords, ugly bastards who kill women of the street. We have child porn in epidemic proportions, child sex crimes and crimes against women. We have questionable police, politicians who lie and big business making skyrocketing profits while middle income earners struggle.

Maybe we need to saddle up and take the same can do attitude to ridding our communities of these rats!