A Happy Ending?

As stated, I took the rat cave down today. Tentatively and trepidatiously I removed brick by brick until finally there was nothing left but the perimeter walls:

ratz1.jpg

With the able assistance of Susan shining  a flashlight onto the spot where I had deposited them last Friday I’m happy to report that it appears the mother returned to her kids perhaps sometime as early as that afternoon and one by one moved them out to a place far away from me. There was no evidence to suggest they’d perished in fact it was if they’d never been there at all.

I even excavated the leaf litter out of the original cubby hole the mom had made and again, nothing:

 ratz2.jpg

While Susan and I were relieved that my intervention wasn’t a disaster, Ranger took the unveiling a little maternally. She’d watched interestedly as I returned the baby rats to the shelter I built for them and had been noticeably protective of the rat cave in the days that followed, so I think she was even more surprised that the rodents hadn’t stuck around and spent quite a bit of time after the demolition sniffing around and looking a little bummed out.

I’m sorry for your loss Ranger, but way to but a damper on my joy at not discovering six little corpses.

Published by

Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."