Tippy, Chapter 19
By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist
Continued from last week.
Well, we may have been a few minutes north of Ivy Hill Drive as the chicken flies, but when you are a short-legged beagle like I am, that is not the case.
The chicken and I stood there on the trash pile, talking, for quite a while. As it got dark, a huge rat came up to us, “Excuse me, folks, would you be looking for accommodations for the night?”
The chicken responded, “Maybe. What do you have in mind?”
“Over there, on the side of the mountain, my associates and I have a fine little burrow. It is not near any truck or human traffic, a nice out of the way place.”
“We don’t have anything to give you.”
“Oh, that will be all right. I am sure we can work out something.”
The chicken and I walked off to the side. “What do you think?” I asked.
The chicken responded, “Very generous. There must be a catch, but what do we have to lose?”
Then to the rat, without waiting for my reply, she said, “Sounds good, want to lead us there? Do you have any water?”
“Excellent!” said the rat and continued, “We have a nice little puddle of water. We also have some delicious human food we have scavenged here.”
The chicken and I looked at each other and I said, “Well, let’s go.”
It was quite a walk to get over to the burrow. When we got there, it was nice and spacious and there was food and water like the rat had said.
Later on, the chicken and I reflected it would have been good if she had taken to the air and done a little reconnoitering around the place. The burrow stuck up out of the ground, facing up the mountain. In this way, you could not see the back side of it.
We drank some water (hadn’t had any all day), ate some food and then settled in the burrow for the night.
The rat said, “Some of my colleagues would like to come around and meet you. Is that OK?”
The chicken replied, “Sure.”
Soon a small cadre of friendly rats came around and made their acquaintances. They wanted to know where we came from, and other normal chit-chat.
We soon drifted off to sleep.
To be continued.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.