This morning didn't start out very well for one rat. The dogs were out in the garden and suddenly I sense something is going on--mother's instinct maybe? I look outside and can see Clyde our big Collie and Capri our mix jumping and being totally exited.
I ran out yelling at them to stop it! It is then I see what it was they were all excited about... they were trying to kill a rat!!
Different emotions flushed through me. Scared since there is something about rats that makes me get goose bumps. Old fairy stories, maybe?
The other feeling was, "oh, no, poor thing!"
With the dogs off of it, I could see the rat was still alive but in shock. I took the dogs inside and went out several times to check on the rat. I didn't want it in the yard, and I didn't want it to die. So many mixed feelings about rats, since I actually have had rats as clients in Sweden and I know they are very smart. But nobody wants to deal with the normal garbage/sewer rats they have here in Italy!
Our dogs' veterinarian told me once, "Rats are very intelligent creatures and carry the poison around to watch what happen to the animals they place it on."
The little Ratatouille died while I was debating what to do with it--and with a shovel my neighbor took him--sorry there is something about rats and snakes even if they are dead--and then what to do? .....Up in the trash cans?
No, I cannot put the rat there--ok, I am not buying a funeral for him, but it just feels so....so disrespectful to throw a formerly living creature among trash...well it would be like being buried in a Smorgasbord for it, wouldn't it?! Hmm... maybe not a bad thought.
For him, garbage is Amore!
Mia Mattsson-Mercer Born in 1964, Sweden. Author to three books. Writing a web-column for the Magazine NARA. “That’s Amore” is my catch phrase. Finishing the manuscripts for two different books. Also HomeSchooling Mother. Worked: United States, Germany, Switzerland, Bosnien, Bulgaria, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Bahrain Founder/CEO Animals Without Limits. I am a proud Lyme disease, Child Abuse and Animal Warrior.
Showing posts with label Clyde. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clyde. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Poisoned Again
Last week you could read about Tjojs being sick. We had to go to the veterinarian clinic for treatment and later give her an IV at home. What I didn't write was that one week later Clyde got the same symptoms as Tjojs and another round to the veterinarian clinic for Clyde's treatment. In my mind I couldn't understand how my dogs that are otherwise so healthy started to get sicker and sicker. They where kept more isolated from other dogs than before, no play friends. And de-wormed and front line regularly. Same food as always, I couldn't understand what was happening!
Outside our house is a small area of dirt and high grass that ever since we came here, we let out the "kids" once a day so they can run off some energy. Sometimes, our neighbors had their dogs out also, so little new "business cards" to read by our dogs. This area is slightly downhill from the street where trash piles up.
Recently, suddenly, two of our dogs became ill, with internal bleeding. My intuition told me it could be rat poison. With all the garbage here it didn't feel like a wrong thought at all. I talked to a veterinarian who said it was very rare that they would put out poison, but my husband commented that there was a noticeable lack of rats considering the abundance of trash at the moment.
One evening my landlord came by and in poor Italian I asked if he had put out any poison. Oh yes he had, but the doctor told him it was not harmful for children or dogs. --Eh, mammals-- we all have stomachs and of course it is about the volume of poison. Even if our dogs don't go snooping around the trash, rain run-off from the trash could come down into the grassy area, and end up in the grass. The same grass that Tjojs and Clyde will eat when their stomach isn't quite right.
I asked for the name and froze when I got the label in my hand...Facorat/Brodifacoum a very strong rat poison that can kill not only rats, but possums, fish and even humans. When rats eat it, it causes a long and painful death. When the rats who have eaten it are urinating they are even letting out poison in grass--where some dogs chew.
Internal bleeding, painful and long death. I do wonder how many stray dogs have gotten this poison into their system, and are right now laying somewhere waiting and waiting to be relieved from their suffering. And how many stray cats have caught and eaten a dying rat... and are now poisoned themselves?
Wouldn't it be better if they just collected the trash like every other civilized country?
This is painful Amore
Outside our house is a small area of dirt and high grass that ever since we came here, we let out the "kids" once a day so they can run off some energy. Sometimes, our neighbors had their dogs out also, so little new "business cards" to read by our dogs. This area is slightly downhill from the street where trash piles up.
Recently, suddenly, two of our dogs became ill, with internal bleeding. My intuition told me it could be rat poison. With all the garbage here it didn't feel like a wrong thought at all. I talked to a veterinarian who said it was very rare that they would put out poison, but my husband commented that there was a noticeable lack of rats considering the abundance of trash at the moment.
One evening my landlord came by and in poor Italian I asked if he had put out any poison. Oh yes he had, but the doctor told him it was not harmful for children or dogs. --Eh, mammals-- we all have stomachs and of course it is about the volume of poison. Even if our dogs don't go snooping around the trash, rain run-off from the trash could come down into the grassy area, and end up in the grass. The same grass that Tjojs and Clyde will eat when their stomach isn't quite right.
I asked for the name and froze when I got the label in my hand...Facorat/Brodifacoum a very strong rat poison that can kill not only rats, but possums, fish and even humans. When rats eat it, it causes a long and painful death. When the rats who have eaten it are urinating they are even letting out poison in grass--where some dogs chew.
Internal bleeding, painful and long death. I do wonder how many stray dogs have gotten this poison into their system, and are right now laying somewhere waiting and waiting to be relieved from their suffering. And how many stray cats have caught and eaten a dying rat... and are now poisoned themselves?
Wouldn't it be better if they just collected the trash like every other civilized country?
This is painful Amore
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