It has been around 14 years since the outcry of the rat situation and good ol' mayor Bonkowski. 

  It was a warm spring day.  We were spring cleaning the rental we had moved into on Prospect the year prior.  The neighborhood was nice, as we have moved and finally settled on Toepfer now.  Anyway . . . I will say this first . . . 

  I am not hatin on our cool city and I still love the south end of Warren and will not leave it for anything!  I have made many friends, my children have grown into adults and they also live here with my grandkids! :)

But I digress . . .

  A woman had just moved into the house behind us.  It was formerly owned by an aging man that had finally driven his car through his garage and into the neighbors yard two doors down from us.  Thank God that he wasn't injured, but I believe that his family finally packed him up and took him in for his own safety.  He hadn't been doing a good job at upkeep and the weeds were high in the back and a woodpile left rotting into the ground behind the garage, which was fixed days after the accident.

  The new occupants had taken no time in the cleanup and the yard was looking more like the rest of the friendly and active "hood" that we call home. :)

  Unfortunately, she discovered a very large rat, one of her beloved great danes had presented her as a gift.  This brought a loud scream from her that could be heard for blocks!  LOL!

  It had been said (gossip) that she brought that said animal to Mr. Bonkowski and tossed it onto his desk.  I do not know if this was true.  But I would have been pleased.  Back then, we were allowed to bait (dangerous to our animals) or trap (for the cost of a rented trap), but not shoot, bludgeon or in any other way, kill the vermin that came in various sizes.  Unless you wanted to be fined, which still is the law.  Of course I believe that no one understood the magnitude of the problem at the time . . .

  She did make the news back then and I am glad that she spoke out!

  Shortly after the rats started showing up, literally everywhere by June. The large steel plant next to the park was reopened and fumegated.  Of course, this did not kill the animals living there.  The problem had been escalated and added; o'possum, raccoon and mice (I like mice!).  They made their way into our garages, crawlspaces, campers, sheds, boats and anything else that they could be sheltered comfortably in.

  The city baited the sewers and some of us used traps.  The caused rats to show up everywhere, dead or dying on the lawns, on sidewalks and inside of the garbage cans (I got lucky, what can I say).

  We had a box of curtains on the shelf in the garage that became a nest for a mother opossum and her small brood of babies.  One of them was clinging to the screen door one night in July.  My son was scared and said he heard something outside.  I went to the screen door and flipped the light switch.  On the center of the screen, in my face was this pink and white opossum!  I screamed like a little girl and then said "Oh how cute".  It hissed at me at the same time I had screamed.  It disappeared shortly after I had shut the glass door and turned out the lights.

  Many of the neighbors did not care about how to rid themselves of the new wildlife that now was living in our city.  I will not discuss that part, because I had let certain people borrow tools and they neglected to clean them before returning said tools.  YUK!

  Now I rarely see rats, opossums or raccoons.  But I know they are around.  They would starve in my yard and thankfully I now own a basement!  I just saw a small rat darting behind the "Moose".  I am sure they have some yummy trash in their dumpster!

Well, that is my story!

You got a good one!  Lets hear it!!