The antics of my father Nicholas Meldau seem to be the common theme of the blog posts for this month – don’t worry mom your turn is most certainly coming!!
Anyway I would like to enlighten you about my father’s absolute love or rather tolerance of the humble “rat”.
Rodents, pets, vermin, spreaders of disease etc… yes these are the usual connotations of rats but not to my father. My parents have the absolute joy of living on a small holding in Hennops as you all know- unfortunately due to the farming surrounds and highly appropriate terrain, it is rat central in regards to pest problems. Woodrock do have resident cats- (which I will tell you all about in another post), but cats can only eat and or kill/mutilate so many rats!!
For this reason, the vermin have an absolute field day at the farm free from their number one nemesis cats but so too from human intervention- the reason- my parents abhorrently hate any kind of unnatural pesticide or poison that would kill an innocent creature so that is not an option!
As many of you animal lovers out there know- there are humane methods to deter and or dispose of rats depending on how large an impact they are having on your property- in this case- they have a huge impact basically vibrating the house’s ceiling panels with their rambunctious running around! Anyway I am waxing lyrical here giving you background- the point of my tale is however how my fabulous father devised a very labour intensive method of moving his rats. The process entails- humane rat traps- tempting rat treats and direct telephonic lines to the farm and kennel handlers.
Much to my mother’s dismay- my father will get a call any time day or night with the code word “RATS” shouted over the phone or sent via texts. Nicholas then projecting every secret agent James Bond agent he has ever watched rushes into his car to go and collect the “rat” in question and deliver it to Hennops River or the Jukskei depending on location. Many a morning, my mother has been ushered into the car at an unholy hour because they have to do a rodent rescue before going into work.
Bizarre but true!
Only animal nuts could understand this kind of devotion, in the interim I hope my boxes in storage at the farm aren’t being snuck into by the pesky fiends!!
Until next time
L
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