Kenya, the killer of rats.

Last weekend we went to Mercedes in western Uruguay for a little trip. I'll write more on that later, but first I have to let you know about the coolest thing I've seen so far. Her name is Kenya and she is a 50lb boxer that is full of fire. She's a sweet heart, we didn't get any pictures of her but if you've seen a boxer before, you know what she looks like. Anyways, we were in Mercedes at a house that belongs to Jorge's friends, Alvaro and Mariana. They have a huge (for here) back yard that is terraced and green. P.S. this part of Uruguay is Ag Land, cows, horses, corn, wheat, stuff with names I couldn't pronounce. So we are all sitting in the lower portion of their house which opens up to the backyard and Vero, Dani's cousin points out a huge rat that is running towards the wood pile. Mariana says, "Kenya! Rata!" and points to the wood pile in the back. In a flash the dog is off the floor and flying to the wood pile. Now I know we have all seen the dogs that look, sniff then give up but not this little girl. She sniffed so much I thought that her nose would get splinters. She was pawing through huge eucalyptus logs going after the rat and as usual, the humans lost interest first. There we are talking about politics, a common topic suitable for any time of the day here, when into the house darts the rat followed by a nimble, brown ball of muscle. Picture, if you will, eight people all on their chairs with their feet in the air cheering a dog on to kill the rat. In Spanish. A beautiful sight. The rat runs to the farthest corner, where I'm sitting with my feet in the air and Kenya corners it there and starts to bite at it. Please bear with me as I take you through this journey. The dog is biting at the rat, the rat is fighting back. The rat is jumping in the air at the dog. The dog is tossing the rat in the air. There is only 12 inches of air between myself and the fight. There is violence and a little blood. There is one thought in my mind. "I wonder if rat/dog fight is covered by travelers insurance?" I don't even know why I thought of that since I don't even have travelers insurance, but I did. Kenya the wonder dog then takes the rat outside and plays catch with it until one of the boys grabs a stick and whacks the rat on the head a few times. Done. The whole thing lasted about 2 minutes, but have you ever had to keep your feet off the floor for 2 minutes? Needless to say Kenya got a round of applause and a treat and we got an experience that was pretty awesome. Something I would like to point out. In the states, or at least in California, having a rat run through your house is something that you don't easily get over. It's followed by the closing of doors/windows, disinfectant and a possible call to the exterminators. Here, it's something you have the dog take care of while you talk about politics. Kinda poetic that the rat and politics intersected and that point in time, I wonder who they were talking about?