Jack Russell Story Jack Russell Story
Story Name: When the RATS moved in!
From: Doe Wilhelms
My Jack Russell Story:
Gazing out the kitchen window while doing dishes last fall, I noticed my jackie puppy to have something more than her usual mole. As I went to investigate I found what she had was bigger than a mouse too. It was, you guessed it!, a baby RAT. "Oh great" I thought. There must be more where this one came from. The next afternoon, Bellini, my 3yr old JR was whining at the back door. I was preparing food and one would expect to see her sitting up behind me in her cutest pose. But today, Bellini wanted OUT ! When I looked out the window I realized why. There crawling on the tall weeds was another small rat. I called the troops, opened the door and said"GET THE RAT !" Well, dogs went flying, digging and sniffing but to no avail. The bugger got away.
We live in a old Victorian house, that at one time had a cistern and a building with a stone foundation. The stones form a catacomb into the basement. That night,... the rats moved in. Our three JRs went crazy sniffing and digging near the heating ducts and under the cabinets. I knew it was impossible for my dogs to get the, you know whats, now under the floor. So, I DECLARED WAR!!,I set a large rat trap under the sink and in the next week proceeded to kill an adult female and three more young ones. One of these hairy vermin did show itself one evening in the kitchen. My daughter, scared half to death, saw IT. She said "It had a big, wide, roached back. And the tail, long and fat with rings on it." From seven feet away in the dim light I knew it had to be the BIG DADDY RIVER RAT !
Big daddy even managed to escape the trap leaving only a blood trail.I hoped he had crawled off to die somewhere. A few days later I came home to find my kids watching TV in the family room. Bellini was whining near the back of the couch. When I asked how long she had been doing that, the reply was, "Oh, about 2 hours." Bellini wouldn't give up. Finally someone figured she wanted something behind the couch. {a hidden treat or maybe a buried chew bone} So the couch was pulled out a little to accommodate her needs. There were no chew bones or treats behind the couch that day,only BIG DADDY RAT. Bellini was on him in a flash. He crawled out, mortally wounded. Bellini came out and finished him off. Altogether he was about 20 inches long.
Well, that was the end of our rat problem for the time being. And we hail to the queen... " QUEEN BELLEEN "