A Visit From Shakira

As I was coming out of my room just about dinner time, 8:45 or so, when I noticed Nena (Mirella) coming out of the kitchen white as a sheet with a broom stick in one hand and a pot in the other.  She begun muttering “it’s so big, like this”  her hands about 10 inches apart.  It took me about 30 seconds of the muttering to figure out she had a rat in her kitchen.  He had run into the kitchen from the washroom and hidden under the sink.  So, I calmly took the stick and began cautious poking around and moving things out from under her sink until I spotted him…huge indeed!  His big black eyes looking quite wild and desperate as he made a break for the other side of the space and hid in a plastic container.  At this point I asked for a bucket and made a trap…turns out, rats are pretty damn smart, definitely smarter than my trap.  He dodged he by sliding between the wall and the curved edge a few times before I stuffed plastic in the hole and he had no choice but to get in my bucket.  But as I began to slide the top over him, the bugger saw the heist and made a break for the laundry room coming straight toward me.  I screeched and all but climbed the wall as those big wild eyes leapt toward me.  He made a quick stop under the china cabinet and then hid the laundry room behind a shovel.

I carefully followed him in.  In the background I could hear Nena calling for the neighbor and inside I laughed a little, because although I was sure the neighbor was a big strong man, I had sized up the rat and knew I could eventually capture him and put him out without any help.

I had positioned myself above the rat on the edge on the wash basin and had just begun poking the hole when the rat ran from hiding into the kitchen.  At the same moment, I heard the rapid noise of something with nails running on traversite, and the tinkle of an animal collar, and around the corner came a daushound sliding a little as he turned in the hallway to dash into the kitchen….what followed was like a scene from The Lady and the Tramp, with the horrible squeaking and shrieking of El Ratòn and the nasal snarls of the daushound.  All the while a man in nothing much more than boxers shouted from the doorway “Da le Shakira! Da le!”  (Come on Shakira! Come on!)… I couldn’t watch. I remained cringing in my perch listening to the horrible ruckus, Nena yelping, and the man cheering it all on.  When the shrieking stopped, I peeked out to see the loser laying on its side as Shakira trotted away looking quite satisfied. At this point several other people had joined the hallway audience, including a boy wearing not much more than boxers.  The man instructed Shakira to take the rat out.  In she walked, picked it up and took it very proudly to the end of the hall, where it was scooped up and taken to the street.

            Now mind you, all the while the 4 felines that live with us were huddle together in the back bedroom…scaredy cats.  Still, I have never seen anything like this in all my life, four cats that won’t touch a rat and an attack daushound…I don’t think I will be calling them wiener dogs anymore.  Thus ends the tale of Shakira.
 (Although I don’t ever like to see an animal die, for anyone who cares El Ratòn’s death was very quick and natural in the way that wild creatures behave).