Ground Zero

Drat! One of the lead stories when Chris turned on the radio this morning was about how some Norway Rats had been caught in one Calgary neighbourhood over the past couple of weeks. This is a newsworthy item because Alberta promotes itself as the only rat-free province or state in North America, and frankly, I've never seen a rat out in the wild, so I have no reason to doubt this. Unfortunately, the community where three dozen of these rodents have been caught is the one that we happen to live in! The belief of municipal government officials is that they're lab rats that have been illegally released, and won't survive the winter if they don't find indoor shelter. The officials also state that they've all been caught, but how do they know, really? I am a little annoyed because the article in the local paper says that garbage pick-up has been put on hold for awhile because of the rats, which isn't optimal. Hopefully when I go out for a walk later today I'll just encounter the usual critters like the bunnies and squirrels ...

Comments

[Carolyn J.]

I used to work in a lab and, believe me, you would know if they were lab rats as opposed to wild rats. Someone sure could have brought them into the neighbourhood with their furniture (not you of course).

You won't see one running across your shoe on the sidewalk either. They are really quite shy.

Be glad the city's doing something about it! Ask someone from Saskatchewan what they do when they see a rat and they'll most likely just shrug.