Rat Tail

I picked up the rat by the tail and tossed it into the cage, shut the cage door and thought, "Crap!  Did I just pick up a rat?"

Let me back up.  It's not that I often have opportunities to pick up rats.  And, no, I wasn't in a New York alley or anything.  I was actually in a science classroom in a small Wisconsin town named Monroe.  The bell had already dismissed students for the day and I had ventured from the English wing to the science wing in hopes of catching up on the day with my friend Jacque.

For some reason she had just gotten a small shipment of live rats.  I sauntered in with the usual hello. As I made my way across to her desk, I noticed a rat climbing on the OUTSIDE of the cage.  Now, I'd never actually held a rat before, but I had been around the rat lab with my college roommate several times.  Somehow my brain was working subconsciously and putting a bunch of things together. 1) A rat climbing on the outside of a cage is not the norm. 2) Someone needs to put the rat into the cage. 3) I recalled Wendy demonstrating that if you pick one up by the tail it can't bite you. 4) I had multiple experiences with mice and mouse traps and holding pet snakes, why not do this?

So, before I knew it, I walked over to the cage, picked the white rat with the pink tail up by his tail, tossed him into the cage and shut the door all while still talking to Jacque about the school day.

It wasn't until the action was complete that both she and I reacted, "Holy shit!  What just happened? What did you do?"  We laughed and laughed.  All was safe and sound.  Small heroics in a high school science lab.