Muskrat Love (麝香鼠, マスクラット, 사향쥐)

There are too many types of rodents that feature on Jeopardy. Beyond just the generic types of rodents that everyone is familiar with like rats, mice, squirrels, etc., they get specific about "the largest rodent" (capybara), beavers, rodents named "swamp beavers" that are not actually beavers but are nutria (MJ is grossed out especially by this type) but then also porcupines and hedgehods (you have to know the difference between them!- hedgehogs are much smaller than porcupines), and gophers, prairie dogs, chinchillas, civets, cavies, and so many more. Confused yet? I never had a hamster or gerbil as a pet, never had a classroom that just had a gerbil tank for all the students to see, I never saw the appeal of a rodent for a pet. This weekend though on a visit to a law school friend in Denver, Colorado, I saw lots of wildlife, and a rodent floating in Lake Evergreen and I thought: wow that must be a nutria! I will make my trivia knowledge useful and try to identify this rodent to impress all present company with my knowledge of rodents!!! Nope, as soon as I started thinking about it, someone else opened up google and identified the varmint as a "muskrat," a semiaquatic rodent that lives mostly in North America. And as soon as we had identified this rodent, it swam through the lake underneath the bank, and out of sight. It must have established a home somewhere underneath the main embankment out of sight of humans, or else it may have been exterminated already. Smarter than some humans maybe. "Muskrat Love" is also a popular song by Captain and Tennile about 2 muskrats falling in love, 1976 song. That's all I know about muskrats. Lest you think that a muskrat sighting was my only memorable memory of a Denver getaway, it was a wonderful end-of-May weekend with Red Rocks booming, downtown lit up with summer festivals, and the snowy mountains still beaming brightly in the background wherever you happened to be. If only Denver existed anywhere within 1000 miles of the next major city, I'd consider living there. MJ looked it up, they have a Hmart! Lots of different ethnicities congregating there, real estate market is rising but not terribly so, SoCal folks reportedly flock to the ski cities and try to rent homes within range of the slopes every winter, it has actual snow, the roads are not heavily congested, air is fresh and smog-free, there's an art museum that looks modern and stylistic, what more can you hope for? Indeed, as I walked around downtown, someone remarked that downtown Denver is a lot like downtown Washington D.C., just without the serious political figures possibly walking around. The roads.....can get windy, which is a problem for someone like me who threw up my first time driving through Big Sur on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) because of all the twists and turns. Every Day is a Winding Road (Sheryl Crow song) literally for people who live near the mountain suburbs of Denver. Huge college presence too, from University of Denver to Colorado State (Fort Collins) to University of Colorado (Boulder) to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, to this little-known engineering university I just stumbled upon when meeting my friends in Golden, CO called Colorado School of Mines- they are not literally studying mines, but it's internationally known for its science programs, but I guess not by me. The muskrat sighting was at Lake Evergreen, which is also inhabited by nearby elk which were calving when we were there, which means they're very hostile as they're about to give birth. (Perhaps similar to some human mothers before giving birth?) We saw a wedding conducted at a lake house, there was a waterfall created by a dam, and a nearby golf course. Oh and ice cream shops located conveniently at the end of the a walk around the lake....I swear ice cream shops stay open for business just to lure parents and their kids to reward them for "being good." Remind me never to let my kid (if any) experience ice cream and open Pandora's Box. My friend also is the proud owner of 3 cats, 2 of whom are like family members I reconnected with this weekend because they're 12 and 14 years old, respectively. I've met them at least 4 or 5 times, and each time they greet me warmly. Maybe the golden ratio for starting families is not 2.5 kids and 2 dogs, but 1 kid and 3 cats? The cats never age, at least from their facial features, and they always have energy to at least jump up on a table or ask for neckrubs and purring, even though the oldest one is probably around 80 years in human years, which is an age I really cannot fathom. Then again, when I was 20 I thought 40 was an impossibly old age, and now that I'm approaching that mark it's just warp speed to 80 now, I guess. I've never seen the need for muskrats or rodents as a pet, but cats, at least well behaved ones that don't smell too bad or urinate everywhere they please, would be a welcome addition to our household, MJ and I have just never committed to one, despite always noticing cats lounging on the windowsill in other people's apartment. They all seem cute until you have to be with them day in and day out (and pay for vet fees, traveling with them, etc.) Cat Love!