Was there a connection?

 

Byron Spires

Several years ago I had a friend that had a pet rat.

Sandra was a member of a group of people I had gotten to know through my association with country and western dancing.

The rat looked like a wharf rat to me. Tail and body, it was about 22 or so inches long.

Sandra was crazy about him and named him Dusseldorf. And I do not know why or where Sandra came up with that name.

Now some people have cute pets and when in a crowd bystanders usually make over their pets.

That wasn’t what happened with Dusseldorf. Most people were repulsed by him and some would even run when they saw him.

Dusseldorf was very smart, by the way. He could roll stuff around on the floor and was bad to drag people’s shoes off to another room if they slipped them off while visiting Sandra.

He also would come to Sandra when she called him.

For some reason, the rat did not like me.

He bowed up when I was around him and would stare at me like I was some personal enemy.

Sandra had gotten him from a local pet shop.

She would sit and pet him like you would a cat or a dog and he seemed to really like it.

Now, personally, I don’t particulary like rats.

I’ve had my share of problems with rats over the years and have made it a point to eradicate them several times.

I’ve owned two stores and had them try and move in with me a couple of times.

If you have ever owned any large building, especially one near a wooded area or food outlet, you will understand what a problem rats can be.

I kept plenty of traps and poison out.

It seemed to me that I would have problems in waves. Sometimes I would go a year and never have an issue with rats and then all of a sudden they’d show up.

I remember one particular time I had set a half dozen or so traps in the warehouse of my store after seeing evidence that I might be experience some rat problems.

I had heard rats liked bacon strips and that is what I used to set the traps with.

Early the next morning I went to the warehouse to check my traps in hopes of having stymied the next rat invasion by getting an early start on catching them.

Three of the traps had some of the largest rats I have ever seen in them.

I disposed of the catch and checked two of the traps and found them empty.

I had put the last trap in a place where I knew rats had congregated in the past.

But, the trap was gone.

I looked everywhere for the trap but it wasn’t in the warehouse.

At the time I had no idea what happened to the trap.

I reset the five traps I had left.

The next morning I went through the same procedure.

Again three traps had rats in them.

It looked like an infestation to me.

The fourth trap was empty and again I could not find the last trap.

This went on until I was down to one trap.

I set it and sure enough the next day it too was gone.

I was really frustrated by this point and decided it was time to get out the big guns.

So I went to the local hardware store and bought several of those great big giant traps and some chain.

I reset the traps and the next morning I went in the warehouse anticipating the mother lode of rats in my traps.

All of the traps had been set off, but there was no rat to be found.

I set them three days in a row and each morning I came to work they were set off and my bait was gone.

The fourth day I set the traps and the next morning they were still set.

I hadn’t won, but my close-eyed nemisises, it appeared, had moved on a bigger and better warehouse.

I was talking to Sandra one day about how she had acquired Dusseldorf.

It turned out she had bought him not long after I had the experience with my warehouse rat.

It was probably just a coincidence except for one thing. I told the story to my friends one day at Sandra’s house that I just wrote about.

Dussledorf was sitting on the arm of Sandra’s chair while I told the story, glaring at me.

When I got ready to leave that night, it took me 30 minutes to find one of my shoes. It had been dragged out of the living room and was partially stuffed under the refrigirator.

Oh well, there is no way it could have been the same rat. 

Or could it?