The Murderer.

Last night my asshole of a roommate found it necessary to kill one of the cage-trapped pack rats in our attic. They're in the cages for a reason - so they can be removed from the house, NOT killed by the tenants. I have no idea what chemical he used, or how he could even think it was a rational idea.



He went to the garage to get our trash can to stand on; in this way, he could reach the attic.

The dog was crying.

I was reeling with anger.

I confronted him upon his return.

"Don't you think this is the wrong way to go about this?" I said.

"You're telling me that the rats aren't driving you nuts [while making noise in their cage-traps]?" Assface asked.

"No," I said.

"Well they're annoying the HELL outta ME," Assface said.

*deadpan stare* His room is across the house.

So we went back and forth - me pro-rat-life, him against it.

Eventually, and because I know that a woman's word is less than nothing to him, I gave up and sat back down at my desk here.

He climbed onto the trash can, opened the attic, and proceeded to do whatever it was he had planned. I sat at my desk, thinking about how that poor pack rat had no chance to even save its own life, and I started to get teary-eyed. My heart was racing - what he was doing was utterly cruel and I didn't turn around to look. I heard him take the cage outside through the garage door, but I had no idea what he was doing.

Later in the evening, I went for a drive and while backing out of the garage I noticed a rat cage wrapped in a towel sitting in our front yard. I got out of the car, stood there by the driver's side door, thought about moving the towel... and then realized that I didn't want to see a dead rat - if he had killed it. I didn't hear it fighting to get loose, though, like they normally do.

I don't like the idea of caging rats or killing them. I know the attic problem will get worse if we don't get them removed, but can't they be relocated into a rat wildlife preserve? I know, they don't exist.

I can't help but find the catching and killing of mere pack rats to be awful and indecent. They are living creatures too and they don't know any better about where they choose to live. Just because they don't meet our standards of healthy pets doesn't give us the right to spray them with random chemicals.

One thing is for sure - I won't be talking to my roommate anymore. I didn't like talking to him before, but tonight was THE last straw. I'm done and he's sure as Hell going to know it.

Pro rat meat.