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| Disco Dancer. Mixed media, 8" x 10" |
To go to the beginning of this book, Tropic Moon: Memories, click HERE.
To add a little excitement to our lives, we thought we had a
rat on board! At night we could hear an
animal jogging around on the deck, lap after lap. We suspected a rat because he made so much noise, though we
couldn’t imagine how one could get on board, as we were out at anchor. After a couple nights, Ed got a look at it
and decided it was only a mouse.
Ed wanted to catch the mouse on deck, rather than inside the
boat. When night came, we’d close the
boat up tight – all the ports and hatches, with the exception of the
companionway. When we heard the fellow
doing his nightly run, we’d shut the companionway.
Ed set a couple of traps, but they were duly ignored. The mouse came back into the boat through a
ventilator shaft. The next night, Ed
stuffed all the shafts with dishtowels.
The mouse pulled out a towel, and went down the shaft.
The following night, Ed was ready for him. Ed made a long tube out of an old sail. He attached it at the bottom of a shaft,
with strings at the top to make a bag of it.
Ed added a towel at the top of the ventilator shaft to mislead the
mouse. He blocked the other vents with
cans.
Well, the mouse frolicked around, and then I guess he
settled down for a nap. Ed finally went
on deck with a big stick. He found the
mouse in one of the rope coils on the cabin top, and managed a couple of
glancing blows. The mouse escaped,
headed for the cockpit, and that was the last we saw of him. Ed took the whole cockpit apart, and went
through every conceivable hiding place he could think of. It’s possible the mouse went out through one
of the scupper holes, and right into the water.
How did this fellow get on Tropic Moon? Our best guess is that he came home from
work with Ed, in Ed’s tote bag. We’re
pretty sure he didn’t swim out to the boat.
And, even though he cost us several nights’ sleep, I couldn’t help but
hope he made it back to shore.
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