Verminski...

At the old place, we had rats in the pachysandra. I never saw them but others say they did. Oh sure you'd hear rustling and high pitched barks every now and then, and if something fell off the porch, it generally stayed off the porch. The dog's legs often had deep clotted bites on them. That corroborated the theory nicely. There was ivy on the house. The whole place was covered in god damned plants. We had to have a man come out and rip down the ivy because the tiny roots were getting into the bricks and the grout and letting water in. The house was getting soggy and might fall down said the man. I asked if he knew anything about rats. He laughed and said, I'll bet your pachysandra's full of them! That house was god damned ugly without the ivy. Now we live in an apartment. Noisy neighbors and ants everywhere. And rats climbing up the pipes outside the window.

(photo by Jason Evans)