A Dog, A Cat and A Rat

It was a day like any other. Mum opened the back door to hang out the laundry. As usual, she gave this beagle the "Sit" command before allowing me to go out. I waited patiently for the "OK" signal so that I could dash out to the backyard to sniff out any intruders since this beagle last patrolled the perimeter. The release command never came. Instead, mum shrieked with horror and quickly closed the door.

"What on earth is wrong with this woman?", I thought. I see her sending an sms to dad. Then she's on the phone with grandma. Shortly thereafter, grandpa and grandma arrive. Now, usually, I get to hang out with gramps when they come. But not this morning. Instead, mum locks me out from the house as she and gramps go into the house and head towards the backyard. I strained my short beagle neck to see what they're up to...

It was not a pretty sight and mum wanted to spare me. It was like a scene out of CSI Vegas. The mangled remains of a body laid on the backyard floor. The guts were spilled out and the severed head laid inches away from the bloodied body. The victim was...




....A RAT! No wonder mum shrieked with horror. She is squeamish (she can't even watch when the doctor gives her a jab, but is a big fan of CSI Vegas ...go figure!). That's why she enlisted gramps' help to clear up the crime scene. There was no way in the world she was going to touch the dead, mangled rat. Why, she couldn't even bear to see the rat again! To cut a gory story short, gramps, supplied with gloves, a make-shift spade, lots of newspapers and a bag, cleared the rat and its remains. The body was gone but the bloody trail of the foul crime remained. Mum summoned all her courage, got out the broom and a big bottle of disinfectant to wash away the remaining evidence.

It doesn't take a Grissom (even though he's no longer on the show) to figure out who the perpetrator is. It was the CAT! It's bad enough that the cat poops in our back garden from time to time. But this was really too much! Leaving a mangled rat in our backyard after such a savage attack is despicable. Unfortunately, we'll never know which cat did it as there are quite a lot of them hanging out in the back alley. So, it looks like this will be one of those unsolved cold crime cases.

Mum is now very cautious whenever she needs to go the backyard. But, she is thankful that she made me sit that day before letting me dash out. She knows that I won't be able to resist sniffing at the rat. It would have been a disaster. But, this beagle thinks "Darn, I missed out on a chance to investigate a real life crime scene!"