weaktwos: (Default)
weaktwos ([personal profile] weaktwos) wrote2004-11-30 12:07 am

Trivia goodness

In New York City, rats bite about 311 people in an average year. However, 1,519 residents are bitten annually by other New Yorkers.

Also, some research indicates that the rat population is 12 times that of the New Yorker population.

[livejournal.com profile] dangermouse74, and [livejournal.com profile] lordrexfear...any bite stories you care to share with us?

[identity profile] namfle.livejournal.com 2004-11-30 08:22 am (UTC)(link)
New colors for your blog!

As for biting stories... I've been bit by a fellow student or two when I was in grade school, but nothing specifically memorable.

I do remember a time, however, when I peered out of my kitchen window one fine summer evening, only to haev my attention caught my movement directly beneath me, on the outterside of the window my head was poking through. I turned appropriately to catch a better view of the movement to discover a pair of eerie red eyes peering right back at me, from well within my own arm's reach.

This would not have been so bad if the rat I was staring at that was climbing up the protected electrical wiring up the side of the building to get into my window hadn't continued it's ascent, directly towards my kitchen window, and my head.

No, it did not bite me. I did, however, only barely escape such an event by zipping myself back inside my kitchen and slamming the window down as fast as I could.

I have also been nearly bitten by a suddenly pissed off tarantula, only a day or two before we learned it had NOT been de-poisoned as it's original owner had informed us who were taking care of it.
I was 'playing with it', letting it walk along my hand, which was protected by one of those huge gardener's gloves. It made it's way all around the hand, and slowly crept up to the edge of the cuff. It got a wiff of bare skin (I was wearing short sleeves), then raised up suddenly and whipped out a pair of 3/4 inch long fangs.
Panicked, I twitched the arm and flicked it into our basin, where it was collected by someone else and returned to it's tank.

I have, in fact, bitten myself more times than I have ever been bitten by anything, or any one else. :)

There you have it, my biting stories from New York.

-elf-

[identity profile] brittadotcom.livejournal.com 2004-11-30 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)
This reminded me of my field mouse story...not a rat, and no biting involved, but can I share?

My roommate had found a baby field mouse stuck in a garbage can by his work, so he put it in a shoebox and brought it home. Cutest thing, ears larger than its body, tail five miles long. My cat was sitting in her preferred vantage spot at the end of the hallway in the doorway to my room. Of course, as he opened the box in his bathroom to show me, the mouse bounded out, into the hallway, under the couch in the living room. We found where it was, then started the tag-team effort of him at the end of the couch with the box, with me on the side with my yardstick gently trying to shove the mouse in his direction. Well, the mouse decided instead to run up the yardstick, up my arm, up my face, launching itself off my nose and forehead...directly down the hallway right into the mouth of my amazed cat! She was so shocked that she just took it under my bed, so we were able to get it away from her safely, back into the box. We felt so bad that when we bought the mouse's cage at the pet store we bought my cat a fur mouse toy the exact size and color...she wasn't fooled... :)

We caught a wild tarantula in the SoCal desert one year and brought it back for a pet...I wonder how poisonous that was? It never bit any of us, thank goodness, and we never used gloves...had to buy live crickets for 5-cents each to feed it...ah, memories... ;)

[identity profile] namfle.livejournal.com 2004-12-01 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
Ok, the image of that little field mouse pulling a matrix stunt and Jackie Chan-leaping off of your face? Hilarious. I was totally broken by it. :D

-elf-

[identity profile] lordrexfear.livejournal.com 2004-11-30 08:25 am (UTC)(link)
No rat bite stories, but my building has a mouse infestation. Luckily it's nothing more than annoying. As long no paper is easily accessible they'll run and hide.

No matter how many traps get laid out and no matter how clean we keep the apartment, the neighboors are complete and utter slobs.

Freaking foreigners. I know that's rude... and biggoted, but seriously, they have absolutely no concept of cleaniliness.

*chomp*

[identity profile] reannon.livejournal.com 2004-11-30 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Do you know how much amusement this created in my newsroom? I'm tempted to post it in my own journal for posterity.

Re: *chomp*

[identity profile] weaktwos.livejournal.com 2004-11-30 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad I could spread the joy. :-)

Re: *chomp*

[identity profile] dangermouse74.livejournal.com 2004-12-01 03:23 pm (UTC)(link)
i'm tempted to say that's good of you to be spreading things, but even in my sleep deprived state that would get me a slap and be baaaaaaad (even though it amuses me).

Re: *chomp*

[identity profile] weaktwos.livejournal.com 2004-12-01 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, everyone has the right to fantasize about me. I'm all about freedom of thought. ;-)

Re: *chomp*

[identity profile] dangermouse74.livejournal.com 2004-12-01 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
lol well i'm glad you take it well then :-)

[identity profile] dangermouse74.livejournal.com 2004-12-01 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
hehe sadly i haven't been bitten by any New Yorkers in a long time ;-) and i don't play on the subway tracks or in the cemetaries so i avoid the rats :-)