Monday, June 9, 2008

Swamp Rat

If you have ever watched Aladdin you may remember him being called a street rat. Well, I sometimes call Ted a swamp rat since he was born in Louisiana. It was a joke, he claims to be a Texan and I like to remind him that officially he is not. I thought I had made up the term "swamp rat" being the clever lady that I am.
Now the point of this post isn't to OUT him as a non-texan or prove that I am a mean horrible wife who makes fun of her husband's origins. The point is, that I met an official SWAMP RAT! It's living in our backyard, it may have friends, and despite the fact that we have given it a name it will be relocated soon.
Her name is Peggy the Lawnmower and she is also known as Nutria. Looks like a groundhog with the tail of a rat. She enjoys munching on grass, taking long dips in the pond, and living under our shed. Her habits have led to making my koi pond look more like a potty and everyone tells me that she will be tearing apart the garden next.
Now, these critters were brought into the USA (Louisiana to be exact) for the fur. Apparently they make a fantastic hat! The rule here in Oregon is that you can't catch and release, you can't shoot in city limits. So grab a cage, drag it to the country and fire away!!!! yee haw!
I plan on breaking the law and releasing it into the wetlands area. If you see me on the 6 o'clock news please come bail me out of jail. I don't like killing things, even if they are pests. I even catch mice and release them far away. I do kill spiders though, so WATCH OUT nasty little spiders!!! I will smush you in a second.

2 comments:

Kyla Saby said...

I like 'apparently they make a great hat." Hahahaha <--- Note that this is not an acronym but actually the sound of laughter spelled out; or as we say in Spanish 'jajajaja.'

Anonymous said...

So you take whatever you humanely catch and relocate it to the country. Well I live in the country and do NOT care for relocated problems released to breed with local existing problems. If you can't kill it, keep it!