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The Case of the Killer Rat : Part II
still a sordid tale of greed and boas without a soul |
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| hey - watch the beezer baby! | ||||||
| Imagine our surprise when we learned that legendary rat 'Al' (Alcibiades, not Capone) was also a Pet Oasis rescue! At the time, the store was run by the same family under a different name - but identical MO. | ||||||
| The scene is the same - a crummy dive and a lonely aquarium. An agouti hoodie behind the eight-ball: dumped by his family and left to die. And another dame, a novice to the Rat Race, who offered Al a deal too good to miss: three squares and a bunk. He took a powder and hopped in the boiler - after being thoughtfully crammed in a cardboard box. A stuffy cardboard box is better than a wooden kimono any day - and Al had no complaints.
But he never got completely back on the tracks after his rocky start. Al eventually stopped chomping his new family after months of trust-building exercises and treats. He still found the open air hinky, and preferred to stay snuggled up in a comforter, waiting for a chin-scratch or belly rub. Those early months of abuse and deprivation had taken a severe toll, and he remained painfully shy to the end, almost three years later. |
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| But for the rest of Al's life, even on his naughtiest days, he was loved. | ||||||||
| Alcibiades 1998-November 19th, 2001 | ||||||||
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Handy Hard-Boiled Rodent Glossary:
'rats and mice' = dice |
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