Giant Beaver

[ashcraft]

There have been some threads dealing with the giant beaver, I came across this photo that I took awhile back at Mastodon State Park, near St. Louis. The little one is probably a 40 pounder-sheesh.

Brent Ashcraft

[Nicholas]

That's quite huge, I didn't think it was that big.

[mommabetts]

Nice, thanks for sharing

[bone digger]

indiana9 has one on his site as well, here's a link

http://www.indiana9fossils.com/Vertebrates...ver-Fossils.htm

[MarkGelbart]

For some reason I find large rodent teeth pretty scary.

[ashcraft]

For some reason I find large rodent teeth pretty scary.

After being bitten clean through the toe by a large rat, I find all rodent teeth pretty scary.

Brent Ashcraft

[tracer]

After being bitten clean through the toe by a large rat, I find all rodent teeth pretty scary.

Brent Ashcraft

exSQUEEZZE me?!!!

[ashcraft]

exSQUEEZZE me?!!!

Well, since you asked....

It was the Tuesday evening before Thanksgiving, about 5 years ago. It was about 10pm, and I was laying in bed, when I remembered that I had left some lights in my truck that I would need the next morning, and it was supposed to be close to zero, and I was afraid the batteries would go bad, so I decided to step outside to grab them. I had a sweatshirt and some shorts on, and the truck was in the driveway, right next to the house.

So I stepped outside, barefoot, to get my stuff. I had just retrieved it, and closed the truck door, when my dog cuts down, and takes off running. In the driveway light, I see him chaseing this HUGE rat, about the size of a big squirrel. Man, it was great, the dog would bite the rat, and the rat would squeal, then the rat would would bite the dog, and he would just howl. Better then any TV that was going on. Well, it was entetrtaining until they came around the end of the truck anyway. The rat bore down on me like a greyhound, and I had nowhere to go, the yard was full of trash (we had just bought it, and were cleaning it up), and I was afraid of getting on a nail. So I closed my eyes and turned my head, hoping the rat would pass me by. Unfortunately, as he ran across my foot, he bit into my big toe, latching on like it was a grape. Now I was howling like the dog, I shook it off, and then drop kicked it about 90 yards. That seemed to take most of the fight out of it, then I retrieved my pistol from my truck, which was loaded with rat shot, oddly enough, and I finished it off.

At that point, I went into the house, you would be amazed how much blood a rat can draw. I stood there bleeding, trying to explain to my wife why I had screamed, and then started shooting, and bled all over the floor.

I called the local hospital and asked if I need rabies shots, inbetween the gales of laughter over my discomfort, the person I spoke to said that off the record, they don't recommend rabies shots for rodent bites, but would recommend a tetanus shot. So the next day, I stopped by the local clinic to get the shot, they also seemed to think it was quite a hilarious story. I don't know how they got the needle in as hard as they were laughing. Later I went to get the rat, I was seriously considering having it mounted with a large toe in its mouth, but the dog had eaten it. Darn dog.

Just about as a good a story as when my cousin bird went deer hunting with a hammer.....but that's for another time.

Looking at the scar as I type,

Brent Ashcraft