Dogs and rats, I still need a cat

All hail the power of puppies. Did you ever know a creature capable of infusing the life around them with so much drama as to rival daytime soap operas? On top of that, they are amazingly resiliant creatures, despite being small and easy to burn.  The puppy is doing beautifuly.  The day after my last blog post, she stopped drooling all the time, the first sign she was able to swallow again.  Then that evening she promptly, and with great enthusiasm, ate 4 coconut cookies, despite them being stale.  I am also happy to say she has put on weight really quickly and is almost back to where she was.

Most of the neighbors all knew what happened, I think, and have been watching her to see when she would start eating again, other people are feeding her too. And, Thursday morning she got an extra special treat....a dead rat! Wooh! And I can hear you thinking, "how did the puppy happen upon an already dead rat first thing in the morning without the other dogs eating it first." Well forge on gentle reader and learn of the consequences of living in Mouse Village.

The first consequence; Mbewa means 'Mouse' and it lives up to its name.  For the past week I have been trying everything in my power to kill a certain mouse (more like a small rat).  At first I was just setting the trap but after a couple unsucessful nights, I decided the trap wasn't sensitive enough and tried different ways of leaving it so it would snap easily.  Still nothing.  This was one smart rat, she even had some attitude.  One morning I woke up and saw her sitting on the chair next to my bed!  As is the case with rats and mice, they climb on things and leave little 'gifts' everywhere for you to find.  On the table, dishes, etc. ugh, lots of washing in lots of hot water.

Then, Thursday morning, we hit the final straw.  I was laying in bed at about 6:30 and I hear something making tons of noise with a plastic bag.  At first I thought it was a toad.  They live in here too and if there is a bag on the ground they will sit in it, I don't know why.  But the bag was, instead, being pulled under the cabnet! This cupboard/bureau/closet/cabnet, holds, probably, a good 80% of all things deemed valuable that I brought from the US.  I do not need a rat getting in it.

Needless to say, I was angry.  Not only was this the same animal who had given me so much grief over the past week, but she had the audacity to sleep in the same room as me! I was being mocked by this creature who had evaded capture for so long she was now daring to come out when the sun was up! That was the last straw.  I got up out of bed and went to the living/dining room and proceeded to get my Panga knife (read: Machette) and a 4 foot section of bamboo (read: Friggin' Big Stick or FBS).  I now believed myself ready to do battle. This was to be a no-holds-barred, winner takes all, steel cage judo death match.

I closed the door.  Only one of us was getting out alive and it wasn't going to be the rat. 

I jammed the  FBS under the cabnet and the rat came running out, towards me.  I dropped the knife and stick.  These guys are a lot bigger up close. Then, for a few minutes we proceeded to play a strange game of Whack a Rat.  I think there is a similar version of this played in video arcades and ChuckeCheese through out America.  This one is different. The rules are simple, winner gets the house, and is played something like this;

Stick is shoved under cabnet, rat runs toward you (and the door), realizes the door is closed, turns and runs back under the cabnet.  While the rat is engaged in all this moving about, and quick calculations in basic physics, I am busy swinging my panga knife at the spot exactly where she was 2 seconds ago.  The rat was winning. Which sucks beacuse I like my house.

After a few minutes of this, she decided to try running the opposite direction where the panga knife couldn't reach.  The panga couldn't, the FBS could.  She jumped on the top my backpack and the stick found its target.  A couple swift cracks and I was sans a roommate.  Do I feel bad about beating something to death, kinda, am I more glad to not have a rat, definitely!

So I took the carcass outside where Puppy was sitting, waiting for her morning coconut cookies.  Imagine her shock to see a nice fresh pile of meat! Forget the Wheaties, this is way to start your day! And that is how I killed my first thing like the Malawian's do. You want a really good story, go talk to Jay, he chopped the head off a Black Mamba he found in his house, but I'm still proud. Killed the rat and fed a starving puppy, good day.

Other things that puppies are good at is inspiring high tensity situations.  Henery's dog had 6 puppies about a week ago, and she is a good mother, very very protective.  She has to be, a monitor lizard would eat a puppy if it found them, kids are mean too, it isn't a very safe place here for a tiny little thing.  So the other day I was at Henery's and the goats came running in the yard.  As I have said before, goats are one of the most destructive natural forces on this planet and I didn't want them tearing up the garden we have been working on.  So I went around to get them back out.  The children followed and ended up watching from beside the den the mother dog was using, bad idea, as Henery says, "she is hot tempered".  I come walking around the house, pulling a goat, just in time to see the dog leap at one of the kids.  The little girl hits the ground screaming and the dog is tearing at her shirt.  I am now dragging the goat as fast as I can, get to the dog and the kid, thwack the dog on the side, with another FBS, and she runs off. 

The kid gets up, unhurt, just scared, and momma goes back to her babies a hour later.  Don't freak out, I have hit my brothers harder than I hit the dog.  They get chased and hit so much here that really all you have to do is tap them and they know the next one will be serious. 

You should have seen how the Malawians reacted! Margret, Henery's wife, told everyone who visited that I hit the dog and saved the kid.  Typically, the PCVs are telling people to stop hitting the dogs, not the other way around.  But you know what, I wouldn't have tolerated that from a dog in America either.  The line is biting, you go to attack someone and there will be consequences, it doesn't matter where the dog is from.    

So yeah, all that aside, things have been pretty quiet here. Maybe I need a cat, then I don't have to worry about puppies and all the drama they bring with them.