Coloring Their Way Out of Crap In Cicero

By Jocelyn Geboy in Miscellaneous on May 11, 2007 6:05PM

Rats are nasty. Chicagoist wouldn’t want our cat to tangle with one. We’ve all seen those scary “Target: Rats!” posters up in nearly all of the alleys in Chicago. We’re not really sure what the city does when they target rats, but we don’t really want to know.

The town of Cicero will spend $8.43 per person this year on rat eradication in comparison to Chicago’s $3.32 a person, and part of their plan this year is to get children on board. They’re handing out coloring books to kids in an effort to educate them about how bad rats are and what the children can do to join in the campaign to kick the rat scene.

The book is called “Oh Rats,” and the cartoons were sketched and donated by Kathy Garza, wife of a Cicero police officer. According to the Trib article, “One page depicts the rodents scampering in a sack of garbage. Another shows a gargantuan rat flat on its back, tongue stuck out, after snacking on poison. A third panel has a dapper rat eager to dine on dog feces.” Yes, it's always good to dress up when you're going to dig in on some feces. Maybe that's where the phrase "shit-eating grin" comes from.

On Wednesday, rat patrol employee Cynthia Salvino handed out the glossy books to a class of 4th-graders at Roosevelt Elementary School after lunch. The books also will be distributed to other schools in District 99, park districts, social service providers, health fairs and non-profit groups in town. Cicero town spokesman Dan Proft says the coloring books are supposed to be “a fun, entertaining way to provide a civics lesson.” Sure. Kids, scat, rats. It can’t get much better than that. But Salvino asked the tough question -- "The poop is really the main thing," said Salvino outside the school. "But how do you have them color that?"

"Dog Waste = Rats" crispyteriyaki