Thursday, December 04, 2003

the Tao of the ratter

A fantastic piece by the Minister of Agriculture on the Maximum Leader's site segues from a discussion of the "declension model" of history ("things are in decline... O for the Good Old Days") to a diachronic comparison of rat terriers through the declension model. One passage details a particular ratter's prowess in the martial arts. Meet a ratter named Boots:

[Boots] also lived up to his rat terrier name, acting as the prince of rat control on the farm. One day when they were cleaning out the grain bin, a lifted sack of feed revealed a dozen rats which immediately began to flee. But there was no safety. Quick as a flash, Boots was amongst them, biting, shaking, dropping, biting, shaking, dropping, biting, shaking, dropping. I have seen Kermit and Patches, my childhood terrier, do the rat terrier neck shake. They grab and then give a powerful shake [that] breaks the neck of the rodent. Patches once shook a mouse so hard the detached head flew across the carport. You can actually hear the bones snap from twenty feet away. But I have never seen them kill multiple rodents that quickly. Knowing that he did not have time to play with his quarry or to savor the kill, Boots efficiently killed and moved on before they could escape. He was true to his breeding.

It's a great post; go over and read the rest.
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