If you read my article about cars last week, you’ll know that mine needed some work. To save money, I decided to try fixing it myself, swapping my defective heater core with one from an old car that my parents hadn’t used in years. That car had a bit of a smell, but once I got the panels under the dashboard off, I realized it was more than just musty. Wedged between the stereo and the heater core was a bunch of dried grass, shreds of paper, a granola bar wrapper, and some fur.
I hoped it was just mould. It wasn’t. I prodded at it with a screwdriver. Solid, but clearly not alive. At least it wasn’t going to bite me. I pried it out from the cramped nest, and once it came unstuck, a dead rat the size of my fist slid out and landed upside down on the floor of the car.
You can tell yourself that you’re not squeamish or bothered by rodents as much as you want, but let me just say that unexpected dead rats in cramped spaces are not going to brighten your day. In the end it wasn’t a big deal. I had gloves on, I finished the job, and (at the time of writing) my car is less likely to explode. But I suppose the trauma of the surprise dead rat is, at the very least, one compelling reason to have a professional fix my car next time.
Jeff was The Cascade's Editor in Chief for the latter half of 2022, having previously served as Digital Media Manager, Culture & Events Editor, and Opinion Editor. One time he held all three of those positions for a month, and he's not sure how he survived that. He started at The Cascade in 2016.