For the last year I have lived blissfully unaware of a secret menace lurking around my city's corners. Ok, blissfully unaware is not quite right, maybe it's just that I've been blissfully ingnoring these menaces.
Sure, I know in the grand scheme of the world rats exist. And I know that living in a city means I'm in closer proximity to them than I'd like to know. But I haven't seen them scuttling around anywhere, and as the old saying goes, "out of sight, out of mind."
Earlier this month, however, I joined a friend and we headed to Roxy's Grilled Cheese truck for a little outdoor dinner. After indulging in some delicious rib stuffed, and avocado, bacon stuffed grilled cheeses, we sat on a strip of lawn by the truck chatting as dusk settled over Boston. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a few little grey creatures hopping around in the grass maybe 50 feet from us and exclaimed "oh, Bonnie, look at the baby bunnies. . .or whatever those are. How cute" Squinting I tried to make out what they were. Bonnie, with much clearer vision than I turned to watch them. "Those aren't bunnies, Katy, those are rats!" With a shudder we both glanced at each other. "Well, I'm done" Bonnie exclaimed, as we both jumped up and made our way off the lawn, away from those nasty vermin.
Not more than a week or two later, my roomiefriend Becca and I were walking to our local Whole Foods for a late night treat. As we approached the store, I see a big grey thing hurrying along the sidwalk before slipping into a WF's pumpkin display, it's lighter colored tail bouncing behind it. "A rat! It's a rat!" I exclaimed in horror and also fascination. And so began another conversation about how gross rats are.
Despite a few shudder inducing recollections of those two disgusting moments, I'd really forgotten about this whole rat business.
Until this morning.
Stepping out into the cool air, I hurried along my usual route to my T stop. Rounding a corner, I happened to glance down and was stopped short as I giant fur ball scampered right in front of me, almost over my feet. As soon as I saw that endless, scaly tale, I knew what it was. In horror, I watched as the rat dashed headlong into a pile of leaves right by the window of a "garden" (real estate speak for basement) apartment. Just like the one I live in. I nearly vomitted in horror.
And like the true irrational person that I am, as I walked to the T my thoughts began spinning. Why so many rats all of a sudden, when I've gone a year without seeing so much as one? I recalled an image of a town infested with millions of mice I saw on Animal Planet once, and I started getting worried that these sightings are a result of something terrible. A city wide rat infestation. It'll be like the Dark Ages. The Black Death hits Boston centuries later and I'm in the rat ruled center. This is a crises people!
Call me paranoid if you will, but I'm getting suspicious of this new influx of rat sightings.
The roommate and I have alredy agreed that the day a rat makes it's home in our home, we're outta town.
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