Paul the Pack Rat Is Going to Die, and It’s Not What You Think

Let me back up before you call 911 and start a true crime podcast called Murder in the Desert: The Paul Chronicles.

About four months ago, our dogs started getting real interested in one particular bush in our backyard. And by “backyard,” I mean a patch of Arizona that someone tried to tame with concrete and decorative rocks, then threw in a couple of bushes so it wouldn’t look entirely like a prison yard.

Now, because this is Arizona, land of the free and home of the venomous, my first th...