Rodents – b.rox

Thanks to my friend Jason Neville for bringing this choice piece of research to my attention: “We put rats in relatively large areas with objects and routes resembling those in Manhattan,” explains Prof. Eilam. The rats, he found, do the same things humans do: They establish a grid system to orient themselves. Using the grid, […]

Today’s the Chinese New Year. I’m a bit disturbed that our child will be born in the Year of the Rat, because I don’t particularly care for rats. But maybe I should learn to respect the rat. Did you know rats share the gift of laughter with us? I got a card from my friend […]

I saw something this morning, after I’d opened my eyes but before I put on my glasses. In my blurry vision, it looked like a mouse had just crept into our bedroom and taken up refuge behind the vacuum cleaner. I put on my glasses, and discovered it was not a mouse but a small […]

Biggs disappeared sometime around the New Year. He had an infected cut behind his ear. Xy treated it with peroxide, but we fear the worst. Shortly thereafter a new cat started hanging around. We call her the Crybaby because she cried a lot at first. But soon she joined our household and seemed to fit […]

Dark thoughts dominate my days. How could it be otherwise, with headlines like these: Man accused of robbing, beating elderly women mistakenly released from jail and New Orleans’ future bleak, historian says and Mom gave teen a gun for revenge slaying and Many residents of New Orleans consider leaving and A culture’s sad finale? And […]

As I was walking home from a community meeting last night, a rat scuttled out from a garbage strewn area and ran right over my foot.

OK, this is a little gross, but it’s also kind of funny. Don’t look if you’re extremely squeamish.

I was on the local news last night — top of the ten o’clock hour. They pegged it to Nagin’s 100+3 day press conference, citing his quip about commercial blight, and then segueing to our rodent-infested grocery. They shot the interview with me yesterday afternoon. The camera operator (who bravely ventured into the grocery) turns […]

I write here without editorial filter. Sometimes I wish I had one. So it was a pleasure to write an op-ed piece for the Times-Picayune, which appeared in this morning’s paper. It was nice to have a second set of eyes checking my work. Here’s what I wrote, followed by some notes.

This is a draft of a letter I’m planning to send to Paul Curcuru of Metairie. Dear Mr. Curcuru, I am writing to you because I believe you are the owner of the property at 3126 BIENVILLE, according to the Orleans Parish Assessor’s Office. To be more precise, I am attempting to contact the owner […]

Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail I just sent to my City Council Representative, Stacy Head, addressing three problems in my neighborhood: There is a small grocery at the corner of Lopez and Bienville which has not been touched since the storm. It is overrun by large rats and is an immediate threat to public […]

I put the trash out last night and a rat jumped out of one of the bags as I was carrying it. Shortly after I set the bag on the curb another rat scuttled away. Damn, I hate rats. I got in touch with Claudia Riegel of the New Orleans Mosquito & Termite Control Board […]

Xy came home from Indiana on Wednesday. When she entered our house, she immediately noticed an unpleasant odor, something beneath my level of perception, but we couldn’t find the source. The next day I noticed it too. We searched but still couldn’t find it. Yesterday we made a more concerted effort. I noticed the smell […]

Helpful rebuilding hint: If you have any possessions you’d like to keep, remove them from the area before the demolition crew goes to work. Yeah, most of our stuff downstairs was ruined in the flood, and put to the curb months ago. Those few items not ruined got moved upstairs — except for one or […]

I don’t think I’ve mentioned anything about our next-door neighbor, Craig. His house was pretty badly damaged by the flood, and he does not plan to return to New Orleans. He’s not sure what he’s going to do with the house, which is only a few feet from ours. He retrieved some belongings in December […]

Been too busy and too preoccupied to post, so here’s a random grab-bag update. My apologies if this seems somewhat haphazard or disjointed. We continue to chip away at basic clean-up tasks. I bought a pressure washer. The electrician was supposed to show up today, but he didn’t. The insurance company was supposed to call […]

Tag: Rodents

NOLA vs. NYC: Rodent’s Eye View

Return of the Rat

Rat Smasher

Feline Trouble

Milo the Mouser

Ugh

Street Scrape

ABC 26 News

Edited

About That Grocery

Dear Ms. Head

I Hate Rats

The Stink of Death

A Helpful Hint

Rats

Random Electronic Squawking