sri lankan expats, pet white rats and ginger uprisings
Jessica* from Expat With Elephants wonders:
"So I have to ask -- where is the line between killing rats and killing feral cats? I too think killing the cats is a bit over-the-top (people, keep your cats inside for their own health if nothing else), but you posted this immediately after murdering a rat."
Hmm...good question. I have had cherished cats in my home and I'm aware that they have individual personalities, and arguably a soul (albeit an evil one). Nevertheless thier populations can get out of control, such as in a 'barn cat' situation in rural areas, or with a collecting 'cat person' household. And both Jessica and I lived in a household where a pet white rat was kept. The rat was named 'Fyedya' and lived a simple life on the cushion of a chair in the kitchen, and never left it. But Fyedya's shit didn't stink either, so I didn't want to kill him. And there weren't dozens of Fyedyas all over the place either. For some reason feral rat holes and rat shit stinks something awful. There are warrens off of our rugby practice pitch and I can smell it. I know cat shit stinks but not the same as rat shit. And rats don't purr and give attitude either - that's why we love them. So I guess my answer is that I could live with a cat but I don't want to live with a rat, and the rat was sharing my space without permission and was making a mess so he had to be eliminated. Plus, rats are far more likely to carry disease than cats are.
Well, most cats anyway. I'll be sure to avoid performing autopsies on dead mountain lions in the near and distant future.
Radical Gingerist Extremist uprising in London.
MetroRail / WMATA has a lost and found. I'm not expecting to get my big giant umbrella back, but it's worth a try after absentmindedly leaving it in the rail car last night. Last month, a railcar driver who was moving through the cars to get to the other end saw my coat that I left after disembarking, connected the coat with me, and hand-delivered it to me before leaving the station. That's the kind of public service I'd like to see every day in this town.
* Jessica was the next Peace Corps volunteer to live with my host family back in like 1995 or so. She is now living in Sri Lanka doing sustainable development work in the community, pursuing photography, and is almost if not more opinionated and blunt as I am. I suspect she may be Scandinavian...
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I never understood why in Britian "Gingers" are made fun of while in the rest of the world ... we worship them as Gods.
MMMMMM Red heads
Ginger Love is the best kind ;-)
Damn, that is a fine redhead.
I'm assuming the cat didn't have a tag (sounds pretty feral to me). It was out killing birds. Shoot it. I love my cats, that's why I feed them and keep them indoors. Nothing irritated me more when I was growing up on a farm and was out hiking or hunting and I would see someone's cat out prowling the woods or a dog chasing a deer (and now cats shitting in my patio plants!). That cat may be a different kind of vermin compared to rats, but still a vermin.
Would that have been a black Totes umbrella? And would it have been left on a red line car? Perhaps next to a seat right behind one of those partitions that has a top half made of plexiglass?
Thanks for trying to make me younger than I actually am, but I was in the fam in 1996. Or maybe you don't want people to know how old you are? Oops.
My family background is as follows: German on both sides, Dutch on both sides, Greek on maternal grandma's side, English/Irish/Scottish (we don't actually know which, this happens when your family gets so mixed) on maternal grandfather's side, and a tiny bit of Cherokee on maternal grandfather's grandmother's side. No Scandinavian, sorry.
Anon: Nope, it was a black and red-paneled University of Maryland umbrella, my 5th lost the same way so far. I'm absentminded, and/or burnt out after work on a rainy day and I walk away from them.
Jess: ooops. See absentminded comment above. I'll correct the date. That means I was with the fam in '95.