Rat tales

Every morning on the way to work I pass by a senior citizens' residence that houses hundreds of elderly Chinese. The residence is a gorgeous, huge, former luxury hotel. The folks too old to walk to the BART station and do tai chi, love to push their walkers across the street and scatter bread crumbs for pigeons.

Here in the Bay there are a lot of Black Crowned Night Herons that hang out in Chinatown around the fish market dumpsters. Many of the Chinese feed these dangerous, hissing, nasty tempered, malevolent looking birds old fish and fish remnants. Some of the herons prefer the Kentucky Fried Chicken dumpster.

This morning, while passing the senior center, I saw, ten feet in front of me, a heron eating from a colorful pile of Fruit loops cereal someone had poured on the sidewalk. Then, out from a hedge, came a large rat to join in the feasting. The rat and the heron both nibbled from the same pile, thick as thieves.