I'm sitting on my fire escape. I like to sit at the top of my fire escape, on the roof of my row home. I could walk across the roofs and fire escapes of a dozen row homes since they are really one large seamless building broken up into homes and one-floor apartments. I like to sit on my fire escape and gaze up at the 10-15 stars I can see near the heart of Baltimore.
I hear a rustling near the bottom of the fire escape. Too soft to be a person. Rustling in the alleyway = rats. I think, "Can rats climb stairs? Wow I hope not, because they could climb the stairs of my fire escape and be at my back door. They could be clawing at my door and windows from the fire escape." I sit and hope that rats can't climb stairs. I look down and there is no rat. Phew.
I hear a rustling 3 floors below me in the alley that runs behind the large seamless row of row homes. This time, without looking I know it's rats. I look anyway- yes, it's a rat. It scurries out from under my neighbor's car that is parked in the alleyway. It runs across the alley to a dumpster that is overfilling with trash. They pick up the trash on Mondays so it's overfilling by Sunday.
I look back up to the sky again.
A few minutes later, a man steps out into the alley from the large seamless row of shops/restaurants that occupies the side of the alley parallel to the large seamless row of row homes. He empties a mopping bucket. The alley is slightly at an incline- the dirty water runs all the way down the alley. It makes sense now; I have noticed how where the middle of the alleyway street meets is turned an odd shade of pale orange. It must be bleached? by the frequent dumping of cleaning materials in the mopping buckets.
Some time later I hear the caw-ing of a large flock of crows. I hope that maybe they are ravens (I don't really the difference between the two) because of Baltimore's history with ravens (think Edgar Allen Poe).
I sit in relative silence (there is humming of heaters, some quiet honking in the background). Then I hear rustling again, this time at a different dumpster. Rats? I think. I look down.
I see a rat skitter. skitter. skitter. up three steps of a stairwell across the alleyway from my fire escape.
I hear a rustling near the bottom of the fire escape. Too soft to be a person. Rustling in the alleyway = rats. I think, "Can rats climb stairs? Wow I hope not, because they could climb the stairs of my fire escape and be at my back door. They could be clawing at my door and windows from the fire escape." I sit and hope that rats can't climb stairs. I look down and there is no rat. Phew.
I hear a rustling 3 floors below me in the alley that runs behind the large seamless row of row homes. This time, without looking I know it's rats. I look anyway- yes, it's a rat. It scurries out from under my neighbor's car that is parked in the alleyway. It runs across the alley to a dumpster that is overfilling with trash. They pick up the trash on Mondays so it's overfilling by Sunday.
I look back up to the sky again.
A few minutes later, a man steps out into the alley from the large seamless row of shops/restaurants that occupies the side of the alley parallel to the large seamless row of row homes. He empties a mopping bucket. The alley is slightly at an incline- the dirty water runs all the way down the alley. It makes sense now; I have noticed how where the middle of the alleyway street meets is turned an odd shade of pale orange. It must be bleached? by the frequent dumping of cleaning materials in the mopping buckets.
Some time later I hear the caw-ing of a large flock of crows. I hope that maybe they are ravens (I don't really the difference between the two) because of Baltimore's history with ravens (think Edgar Allen Poe).
I sit in relative silence (there is humming of heaters, some quiet honking in the background). Then I hear rustling again, this time at a different dumpster. Rats? I think. I look down.
I see a rat skitter. skitter. skitter. up three steps of a stairwell across the alleyway from my fire escape.
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