Last Thursday night at an Inner Richmond flat, a rat made a huge mistake.
It had taken up residence with two 20-something, pot-smoking web designers – Dustin and Jake – several months before, and was first noticed, according to Dustin, when Jake wandered into the kitchen for a midnight snack.
“I heard my roommate scream like a girl,” Dustin recounted Saturday night at Marlena’s, a Hayes Valley bar. “I had never heard him do that, so I ran to him.”
Dustin found his roommate in a panic, having inadvertently kicked the rat across the room.
It was not the last time the rat would suffer.
Several months later, Jake left a pot brownie on the couch, then later that night, he noticed it had gone missing. When Dustin, who was out at a bar, picked up the phone, Jake got right to the point.
“The rat ate my pot brownie,” he reported, more amused than aggrieved.
“No wayyyyyy,” Dustin said.
When he got home, the proof --a stoned brown rat -- had collapsed on the sidewalk near a purple flower. It appeared to be dead.
But it wasn’t. Dustin nudged it with his shoe and the rat slowly raised its head, acknowledged Dustin, then rested its head back on the sidewalk. Dustin snapped a photo.
Later, the rat was gone.
