Hit by a Dead Rat

In the very early days of computing I was the proud owner of a Commodore 64 complete with cassette tape backup. One of the first games I encountered was ‘Frogger’

It was a simple game where you had to get your frog to hop across a five lane highway of fast moving cars, buses and trucks then a crocodile infested river to reach its home. It you were good you made it, but one simple error of judgment and you were roadkill . Dead and flat. The graphics were poor and the sound was over the top but I grew to like the game.

It taught me a lot that I did not realize I would need later in life. You see, in India, every day is Frogger day and those skills acquired while others said I was wasting my time are now central to my physical survival in road crossings.

NOTE TO PARENTS: Be careful criticizing your children about wasting time on computer games. The skills they are obtaining could be life saving later in life.

In Australia you see a fair bit of roadkill on country roads but in the city it is minimal. In India, Chennai in particular, roadkill is prevalent. The main source for roadkill appears to be rats and the main beneficiary is the crow. Not a day goes by when you do not witness the crow feeding on the carcass of a dead rat while avoiding the traffic. What a skill that bird possesses. I have not witnessed any crow roadkill since I have been here.

They rip and pluck and strip the dead body bare leaving a mix of bones and fur to slowly disintegrate in the weather.

Wow – that was a long introduction to an incident that I witnessed this week.

While minding our own business on our daily walk for coffee we were standing at the edge of the road eagerly working in tandem to get across safely. While waiting we witnessed a crow at work. Then a special moment occurred. Just as the gap in traffic appeared for us to advance one lane further, a motor bike sped up in the lane where the crow and the rat were getting acquainted.

The result of this was the crow having to make a hasty departure, but unfortunately its claw was still hooked in the rat. As it soared towards us in its escape, and we advanced one square in the road crossing game, the crow lost its grip.

I did not think Lynn’s new fur brooch looked that bad but it only resided on her salwar for the briefest moment before the now patented rat-removing scream/jump/spin, dislodged it.

We did enjoy the safety of our Coffee Shop that day as we recalled the exciting events of the walk.

PS Even when with a trusted friend, disasters can still occur.