Rats!

Ok, so if you are reading this, I'm assuming that you know my history with rats. Quick recap: when I was a child, around the age of 10 or so, I would spend the night at my friend Nicole's house. Well, as I recall, she had 17 pet rats, and at the time, I didn't think it was strange to play with them. There were occasions when I would wake up the next morning, and she would have them all in the bed with me. Can you imagine?

Fast forward to my adult years: I am petrified of rats, and I believe that my childhood experience contributed to this. However, the thing that triggered it later on, was when my mom and sister took me to the movies to see YaYa Sisterhood to make me feel better while recovering from having my wisdom teeth pulled. So we go to one of the nicer theaters in Buckhead (Atlanta), and about halfway through the movie, I hear something under my seat. Granted the theater is packed, every seat taken, and I'm thinking that either I've had too much pain medication or the guy behind me has brought his toy poodle. Much to my surprise (and everyone else in the room) there were rats running around! The room cleared out, and the ushers denied everything, refusing to refund our money. It took me many years to go back to a movie theater. Thank god Atlanta has a drive-in.

Soon after this occurance, I started seeing rats everywhere, and it hasn't stopped. Not only have I almost run over them in my car, but just before Christmas of this past year, a rat literally flew out of a public trash can on 7th street, landing mere inches from my feet (9 o'clock in the morning, no less). Great way to start the day!

So now, I'm blessed to see rats every night on my walk from my office to my parking garage. I say blessed because it is a CHURCH that is infested. These rats are not afraid... they congregate on the sidewalk. It has seriously gotten to the point that I'm considering parking somewhere else, which is too bad because this is the cheapest and nicest garage I've found.

Anyway, I felt the need to write about it because I have to vent my frustrations somewhere. My family and Stu are probably numb to my complaints at this point. I bring it up because tonight topped everything I've seen (as far as rats go). Typically, I will cross the street and only head down the sidewalk towards my garage when I see at least one other person walking in that direction. I don't know what I expect them to do if I freak out, and so far when I yelp, others look at me like they don't know what is odd about the situation... like it's so normal to see rats scurrying about in front of you. Well, back to tonight. There was a young, professional girl whom I chose as my protector (unbeknownst to her). I steadily kept up with her, so I wouldn't be alone when passing through the sacred spot. Low and behold, I saw two from a distance. They are running their normal course, from the dumpster, across the alcove, to the bushes, and back. I squeal. The girl ignores me. Two more run out as we approach, I squeal again. I try to make conversation with her, so as to distract myself. She must not have spoken english because she glared at me quizzically. Regardless, at this point I've seen at least 3-4 rats rummaging around in my midst, and I glance over to make sure they are gone, and there is a homeless person sleeping in their path. Oh my. I don't think I can take anymore.