Don’t you just love a good citizen patrol? Especially when one involves urban-dwelling dogs, (the Ratscallions) and their owners as they take their dogs rat hunting in particularly invested areas in NW DC, especially AdMo?
Urban dog owners and rat hunting in D.C. Who knew it was a thing? Apparently, it is. Or is becoming more of a thing. And good that it is: fun for the dogs and the people, beneficial for the community.
Rats and city life — even higher-end, fancy city life — kinda travel together. It’s the outdoor trash-can collection areas, especially for condos.and restaurants that make city life so tasty and convenient for the rodents. All that yummy trash available, in nicely concentrated areas, pretty much 24/7.
I’ve seen it. My brother and his lovely wife live in Adams Morgan. Up a level or two with a balcony. Rare is the visit where I don’t see a rat or two or a dozen scampering about, in and out from the community trash can areas and a feast for rats.
One little tidbit from the article: “There is a choreography to catching rats. There are “push” dogs, who go into a rat-dense area first and scare the rats out of hiding, and there are “catch” dogs, who wait nearby and pounce, lightning-fast, to snap them up and shake.” Who knew? Hah!
PS – Here is the WaPo article which I gifted as one of my 10 free article links per month.