she said/i heard
my friends are back from new york; i watched their menagerie while they were away for the holiday. not having family that i care to be close to makes for non-committal holidays and if i’m not traipsing about the globe i’m available to care for the wee beasties.
i have a really bad habit of only halfway listening to certain people so when my friend was giving me the last-minute lowdown i could have sworn she mentioned something about a rat and a bandage. no problem so they have two dogs, a cat and a rat that needs it’s bandage changed. for a split second i was mildly curious as to why i’d never heard of little willard or ben or whatever but my mind was off in another direction before i could ask.
all creatures great and small were well loved and fed but i never did find that rat. now i knew i had not listened and she had not explained because she got home and asked if i smelled the dead rat behind her bedroom wall and saw where she had packed the hole with clorox wipes and duct tape . i told her no that i kept a simmer-pot of rosemary and peppermint essential oil going on the stovetop the entire stay…not a single word was lost on me when she told me she thought i’d boiled water for tea so that’s what she used to make her macaroni and cheese with the night she returned. ah the perils of attention deficit.
prevention is kinder than destruction. each year over six million healthy dogs, cats, puppies and kittens are killed as surplus. remember: neuter, spay and don't let them stray!