It is a long and storied history in humanity that when we despise something so much we are willing to go against our own values to be rid of it. Crimes of Passion are what we call it. If I were cold and severe enough, I would have posted a photo of what a rat did to one of my ducks yesterday. You might join me in my loathing of rats after that (if you don’t already). But I did not have the heart to take a picture. Instead I buried the remains. I am sure it was a rat by the evidence of gnaw marks.

I then asked another urban farmer in Oakland her thoughts on dealing with rats in the garden. Her ideas were similar to my own – traps, guns, dogs (While I still believe a Rat Terrier may be a great advantage, I’m not sure if I want to commit to a dog. Though, in truth I’d LOVE a hairless rat terrier). Whatever I do, the long term effort is removing the animal feed after the animals eat and reducing habitat.

Today, after a busy day, I returned home in the evening to Dipak telling me he heard “noises that weren’t so good” coming from the ducks. I ran outside with a flashlight and heavy metal pipe. I hit around the area and decided to try to peak down the long narrow gap between the duck hutch and the fence. Lo and behold! I saw the fat back and long blackish tale of a brown rat. I switched things around in my hands so I could attempt to jab it with the pipe, silly me. It was gone instantly. Wild with anxiety and disgust, I pulled out the poison and threw chunks of it on the path and down the tunnels that they have created. My routine for the night was then, every couple of hours upon hearing the ducks flip out, I’d grab the torch and pipe, run down the stairs, out the front door and around to the back, check out the ducks and knock things about to deter any rats hiding, then check the poison levels. This finally ended at about 3:00AM.

All the while I had winding though my mind some newly acquired information. Prompted by a reader to identify the species of rat, I discovered to my horror that the Rattus norvegicus in my yard as the capacity for metacognition. A quietly terrified voice whispered “nooooooo” to this news. Apparently, “metacognition helps to perform many cognitive tasks more effectively. Strategies for promoting metacognition include self-questioning, thinking aloud while performing a task, and making graphic representations (e.g. concept maps, flow charts, semantic webs) of one’s thoughts and knowledge.” Oh no. No, no, no.