I know.
You’re wondering what happened to Houdini the Rat – you want to hear the rest of the sordid tale don’t you? OK, I’ll tell you the sad, sad story of how Houdini finally met his maker.
As we left him last, Houdini had been forced from his home in the garage and his carefully constructed rolling compost heap had been torn apart, restoring it to the classic 1974 Cadillac DeVille that it was. I’m sure it was very traumatic for the little guy to watch.
Where, oh where could our fine, furry friend find a new home?
I can almost imagine the little rat stepping out of his beloved garage and taking a look around. There was Grandpa’s house but he had already tried a house without much success. Why not the barn across the corral?
Why not, indeed?
Even though there wasn’t a big old Cadillac to fill with veggies there was a new source of food and shelter. The oats for the horses and alfalfa cake for the cows is stored in the barn. It’s also where we keep the tack for the horses. Just think of all the great nests you could build from a sweaty old cotton horse blanket, not to mention all that great leather to chew on!
It didn’t take Houdini long to settle in and it wasn’t long at all before he made his presence known. There were holes in the saddle blankets. Several saddles had teeth marks and a brand new cotton cinch disappeared completely. When we did finally find it tucked behind a barrel of oats, the only parts that were left were the brass buckles.
At least we knew that Houdini was alive and well in the barn.
The traps and poison were moved into the barn and within a couple of days Houdini was once again staring back at us through the wire mesh of the catch-em-alive trap.
This time Hubby didn’t take any chances. Houdini had already cost us a lot of time, money and horse tack so Hubby had no qualms at all about shooting the rat through the sides of the cage, leaving two small holes in the metal screen and one dead rat.
Fairwell to a worthy opponent.
We salute you.
Well, all things must come to an end – so it was with Houdini the Rat. But just because he was dead it didn’t mean his adventures were over.
Our two sons had grown as fond as anyone to the tale of the wood rat and once they knew we had dispatched the little critter once and for all they asked to see the body when they got home from school. They were curious – Houdini had always been moving at a pretty high rate of speed whenever they did catch a glimpse of him so they wanted to take a good look at him now that he was… well… a little slower.
I guess you could say Houdini had left his body to science.
At that time our family was technically living in two places. We were working on remodeling the old house at the ranch but still owned the house 32 miles away at Custer, SD. I would work on the ranch house all day then go home to the kids who were still in high school at Custer while Hubby took care of things at the ranch.
That afternoon Houdini’s body was placed in the bed of the pickup and I went home to make supper for the kids. They were thrilled to finally see the wood rat up close.
I know – ranch kids are weird.
The next morning, for some reason that I can’t remember, we swapped vehicles and the boys drove the pickup to school, not even thinking of the dead rat in the back.
Of course, boys will be boys and the death of the infamous wood rat was a hot topic in the parking lot before school. Amazingly, none of their friends had ever seen a bushy-tailed wood rat so they all congregated around the back of the pickup for a close look at the native wildlife.
One thing led to another. One kid had an idea – another kid had a roll of duct tape and before you could say Abracadabra, Houdini was taped to the antenna of someone elses car.
Now, don’t get upset – it wasn’t done in anger or spite. The kid who’s car they chose to’ bless’ with such an honor was actually a good friend of theirs and obviously one with a well-developed sense of humor (and another roll of duct tape) as Houdini was soon moved and thus began his tour of the parking lot.
All day long there were comments in the halls of the school.
“Did you see that thing taped to my antenna?”
“Yeh, what was it?”
“I don’t know but it’s on (so and so’s) car now.”
No one knows for sure how many vehicles were visited that day as Houdini traveled throughout the parking lot. There were even rumors that some of the teachers were introduced (up close and personal) to the wood rat as the day went on.
By late afternoon, Houdini was the talk of the school but then the body went missing. No one knew what happened to him and to tell the truth no one really thought much of it. More than likely, someone had finally taken the bull by the horns (or more aptly, the rat by the tape) and disposed of the body. School let out and everyone went home with a new knowledge of the bushy-tailed wood rat.
The boys came home and shared the story of Houdini’s wild day at school with me. Of course, I was horrified and knew for sure my beloved but slightly warped children would be expelled from school. But they weren’t.
The next morning I needed the pickup to haul building supplies to the ranch so we swapped vehicles again. The boys left for school and I headed to the lumber yard then on to the ranch.
It was a beautiful fall day with warmer temperatures and lots of sunshine. As I pulled up to the house I saw my hubby working outside. He glanced up, then did a double take, a crease furrowing his brow as I pulled to a stop beside him.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He answered still looking puzzled. “What’s hanging under your truck?”
It couldn’t be. But it was.
We both got to our hands and knees to look under the truck to find a plastic grocery bag tied to the center of the pickup frame.
The mystery had been solved.
Houdini had come home to the ranch.
He’s buried out in the back yard.
Maybe I’ll put up a headstone someday.
Maybe we should have named him Boomerang.
RanchDaze 