January 03, 2009
Pesky Tree Rat!
May of '07 I caught this guy in one of my trees. I thought he was cute enough to take his picture, but not worthy a blog entry. Error on my part. He's now on my "wanted, dead or dead" list. Seems he has taken a liking to outdoor Christmas Lights.
It started a week or so ago, I noticed a strand of my Christmas lights hanging down from the tree. It looked to be a clean cut, I blamed the gardeners next door, as vandals would have done far more than snip a single stands of lights. I put a plug on it and ran an extension cord to provide power.
A day or so later another string went out. This one was cut above the driveway, about 10 feet off the ground. HUH?? I could see the two ends, so I climbed up a ladder to splice them together when I discovered that I had too much wire to be a simple cut. Since it was a newer string the lamps were still in the original factory color sequence and it proved that an orange bulb, complete with socket, had been removed.
Finally, December 30th, I caught the culprit in the act. I have been working in and out, was in when the dogs started acting up. Go out front and a string of lights is hanging down right in front of the door, a red bulb and socket on the ground. Looking up in the tree I see the little rat. I poke at him with my 20' stick, bang it around, he runs over to the next tree. Bang and poke at that one. Go inside to give him a chance to escape. Hopefully scared him enough that he won't return.
But I doubt it.