Glamorous Rodents

[dotinthesky]

I found a family of baby rats today.  I was digging the compost heap at the community garden when I noticed something shiny and grey wriggling amidst the rotten egg shells, mud and wood lice.  Soon the viscous thing broke apart into three tiny sets of blind eyes searching for a way back inside the heap.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered around me.  "Baby mice!" I said.  Someone lifted one by its very long tail and corrected me: "baby rats."  "Where's the mother?" someone else asked.  We all stared silently at the heap and shuddered.  There was something trying to poke out of the mud - like that bit in Alien - so I raised my shovel in self defence.  It turned out to be four more baby rats.  We pulled them out and put them in a cardboard box.  Nobody knew what to do with them.  We couldn't exactly rehouse them but nobody had the guts either for drowning the lil cuties.  When I came home, the impasse still stood.

I'm on the third episode of Dynasty's first season.  During a glamourous dinner, Blake Carrington's daughter smokes a spliff in the garden with her cousin while her closeted gay brother reads Emily Dickinson to one of the guests in the library (the guest that just came out of the loony bin.)  I'm loving it.  (I'm quite surprised at the amount of versions for the theme song on Spotify; and the same for Dallas.)

It would be kinda fun to write an 80s style bonkbuster centred around a rich and powerful family (much like the ones I used to write when I was fourteen - inspired by my mom's Sydney Sheldon collection).  Or a reboot script for Dynasty.  I think there's a market out there in these banker bonus times.

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

You soon get Blake killing Stephen's lover. Then Stephen runs away, has plastic surgery, and comes back as Claire's dad from heroes. But Stpehen II is far cuter than Stephen I. However, I hated when Fallon as played by the wonderful Pamela Sue Martin was replaced by the deeply vapid Emma Samms with her ropey accent.

Note: obsessed? A teeny bit? Perhaps, back in the day. I did name my first two cats Alexis and Cassandra after Joanie and Kate O'Mara's characters...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

SPOILER ALERTS!!!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about rats but someone at the garden was saying that the mommy rat wouldn't come back for her lil ones because we had moved them. So either they'd die of starvation or we'd put them out of their misery...

[petercampbell.livejournal.com]

You could hand rear them - have you never fancied having a pet rat? I always wanted one when I was a child (even after seen Willard at around the same time)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I know a few people who rear pet rats, but I just don't know if they are the same as the kind found in compost heaps!

[amberholic.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing you didn't drown them as since that recent case about that man drowning a squirrel, you might end up getting fined.

It's probably a good idea to deal with the problem though... it can get really bad, really fast.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Oh, what's the case of the squirrel?! I didn't hear that one. I jokingly suggested we call the RSPCA but nobody thought they'd say more than "well, it's vermin..."

[amberholic.livejournal.com]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10705958

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Next time I'm going to suggest we take the baby rats to the RSPCA. Let them deal with it.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

Aw, baby rats are dead cute. I'd imagine they're pretty screwed without their mother though, that's a horrible situation to have to deal with.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm very curious to find out this Saturday what happened to them.

[armoury-kim.livejournal.com]

Did you find out what happened to them?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

They were left outside in the box and overnight they disappeared. General consensus is that foxes ate them...