This is as far as the silly blog I'd been working on ever got.... My kids can attest that I won't tolerate certain things. Whistling in the same room as me... definitely no whistling in the car, chewing gum noisily, chewing gum for more than 15 minutes in my presence, WHINING, calling me ma'am! But this year I've decided to add some things to my list of not tolerated items.At this point outside the creature has hidden under a neighbours car. My job of identifier wasn't an easy task.... I'm not a big creature fan so I didn't want to get too close. I went back into the house for my camera. The zoom can get closer than I was willing to have my body. With each glimpse my assistants were claiming, "It looks hungry, should I get some food?", "I think it's limping, it's hurt. Can we get a cage and fix it's leg?", "It has a cute face, I think it's someone's pet."
The neighbour had come out and was trying to coax it out from under the car... not sure why though, by throwing snowballs at it, not sure about why the snowballs either. I was snapping photos, but the shadows and the dark tires and the fact that I didn't want to lay down on the street in the ice to get a great shot limited my photographic success.The creature was indeed ratlike with a black leathery tail at least 8" long and a fuzzy body almost the size of my cat. It had huge hind feet and it's front paws were very clawlike. It moved slowly and deliberately, not exactly a scurry. It was aware of our presence, but not terrified by us.
As we were outside attempting to identify the creature, the traffic which still haunts our street each week day at this time began to arrive. I'm sure they wondered why we were out of our houses and all looking at the gutters. At this point the owner of the car that it was hiding under came out to go to work. She hopped in and moved her car slowly. The creature slowly crawled up onto the boulevard. We definitely got a good look at our mysterious visitor. My skills at idenitfying creatures is non existent. I was as clueless as the rest. Although it was ratlike, it just didn't seem to be a rat, but other than that, my diagnosis was ??? The creature headed out across the street. He made it amongst all the cars that were slowing for him to cross and crawled up on to the snow bank on the other side.
What happened next happened so quickly that if you'd blinked or turned around to hush the barking dog in the yard behind you... you would miss it. I wasn't so lucky. I didn't blink or turn around to hush the dog like my neighbour did. I was privy to the white minivan that had careened down the street oblivious to the strange occurrings of the day. The van sped past me and whipped around the circle cul-de-sac without any thought to the people standing by and obviously no thought to the creature we were all observing. He made a fatal decision to return to our side of the street and left the snowy bank for the road. The crunch, the squeal and then the thud as the back wheel also hit, and then watching the writhing body as it gave up the ghost.We still didn't know what it was but now we were faced with the new dilemma of who is going to remove its remains after it's thoughtless murder! Other cars had slowed, swerved carefully, and this van hadn't. In fact the driver didn't look back or even pause to consider what she had driven over and I'm sure she felt the bump. (remember, this thing isn't small, it' s like a cat!)
The next vehicle stopped, the driver opened the door and took a look at the suffering animal. Then he closed his door and went on to the walkway to retrieve his children. Once his children were in the car he turned around and came back. I had walked towards home to retrieve a shovel. He pulled up to the animal again. His children now all looked at the poor creature. I approached him. "Do you know what it is?"
"A muskrat."
After only a minute or two of chatter he went on his merry way, or perhaps subdued ways depending on how he felt about the muskrat.
I moved his remains to the side of the road with the shovel. I didn't know what else to do. Can you put muskrats in your garbage can? I didn't want it to be continually run over. Twice seemed insensitive enough. I went home.
I googled muskrat. Now that I know that they are typically nocturnal animals that hibernate for the winter, I feel worse. Why wasn't he in his little den on the banks of the canal hibernating far from the cruel traffic laden streets!! He's almost completely an herbivorous creature, so he wasn't out to hurt anyone. I began imagining what could have happened to lead to his being on my street, and I cried... ok I was also preparing dinner and chopping onions, but it was sad I tell you!If this doesn't prove that there is rush hour traffic on what should be a quiet cul-de-sac, I'm not sure what will.
As for my original blog thoughts... I don't think I will tolerate senseless muskrat killings on my street anymore!
(I don't know how to get the photos off of my phone camera yet...)
