So Ruffian just flushed a dead rat down the toilet. It was feeding time for her corn snake, so we bought a rat, came home, and gave it to Henry. Henry struck and killed it, and then left it alone. (What the hell? Snakes kill for sport now?) It had been an hour and no munching, so we had to get rid of it. I suggested flushing because, well, it was about large poop sized. Seemed like a better option than leaving it in the trash for a week. Very strange sight, swirling soggy rat with rigormortis (ooh, band name!). Seemed to go down a little slowly, but completely…as far as I know.
I think it was a good idea, but now I’m not too sure. Any of you plumbing-savy folks out there have any thoughts?
I do believe this is about the strangest thing either of us have flushed down any toilet. How 'bout you?
Well, once, when I was a bratty young teenager, a friend and I were obsessed with trying to clog up the bathrooms at the BP station down the street. We tried a rock-it just sat on the bottom of the toilet. Maxi pads didn’t work.
Then, we found a broken pair of reading on the curb. So, we went back and tried it. They went down, and we went for a short walk.
Came back an hour later, there was an Out of Order sign on the bathroom door. SUCCESS!!!
After that, you had to ask for a key-one of those keys with the huge wooden key chains-the size of my forearm.
I know, that was a pretty assholish thing to do. But I’m still sitting here giggling at the memory.
Most sewage treatment facilities are not made to handle dead animals. But I would bet a lot stranger things get flushed though.
I worked for a short while doing maintainance for an owner of several rental properties. One Monday morning I was sent to a house for a plugged toilet. The renter was a middle aged lady with 2 teenage daughters. I noticed the house was full of religous items and the renter told me she was a teacher at a private Catholic school. She told me the toilet becamed plugged sometime Saturday night, First I tried a snake. It helped a little. I tried some lye drain cleaner. Did nothing. I removed the toilet and in the drain line found the torso and one leg of a GI Joe doll that had apparently been flushed before the current renter moved in. The doll had become wedged in the pipe in a way that would allow most of the waste to pass. But hooked to the leg was a comdom. It appeared sometime Saturday night the comdom was flushed, hooked on the GI Joe and evertime the toilet was flushed, the comdom would billow open and catch whatever was flushed.
I put the toilet back together and it worked fine. I had placed the doll and comdom in a bag and was going to dispose of the items elsewhere. While putting my tools away, the 2 daughters came out and thanked me for clearing the toilet. I figured the comdom probably came from the acitivities of one of the teens. I showed them the contents of the bag and told them not to flush comdoms anymore, just throw them in the trash. Both were horrified. They said that they did not flush it and did not do that sort of thing. They also said that the pastor of thier church had been the only man in the house and he would need a comdom. They then went into the house. Their mother came out a minute later and asked me why her girls were all upset. I showed her the contents of the bag and told her that one of them had flushed a comdom and that was part of the cause of the toilet being plugged. She turned 3 shades of red. I mention the pastor and she got even redder and ran into the house. I never was called to that house again.
What’s a “broken pair of reading”?
The Action Squad, a group of urban explorers based in Minneapolis, has gone into sewers on a few occasions in order to get to places. Sewers are never the destination, because they’re nasty and dangerous, but sometimes they’re the only connection between two tunnel systems or the outside world and a cave.
Anyway, on one sortie I accompanied them on under St. Paul, we had to walk through a fairly clean sewer (brick and sandstone) to get from one utility system to another. I saw the regular stuff; water, maxi pads, roaches, etc. I didn’t hang around for too long, it was just part of the trail.
The next night they went back in and did some more exploring in the sewer looking for other connections. While wandering through the sewer, ‘Max Action’ spotted an object in the sewage. He picked it up and brought it home with him. He’s totally nuts, if you hadn’t figured that out yet.
The next day, he showed me what it turned out to be, after a lot of cleaning and polishing: a hollow cast silver teddy bear, three or four inches tall and pretty cute for something found sitting in sewage. I still wonder how long it’d been down there.
For me, the oddest thing I’ve ever flushed down the toilet is a tampon.
What’s a “broken pair of reading”?
The Action Squad, a group of urban explorers based in Minneapolis, has gone into sewers on a few occasions in order to get to places. Sewers are never the destination, because they’re nasty and dangerous, but sometimes they’re the only connection between two tunnel systems or the outside world and a cave.
Anyway, on one sortie I accompanied them on under St. Paul, we had to walk through a fairly clean sewer (brick and sandstone) to get from one utility system to another. I saw the regular stuff; water, maxi pads, roaches, etc. I didn’t hang around for too long, it was just part of the trail.
The next night they went back in and did some more exploring in the sewer looking for other connections. While wandering through the sewer, ‘Max Action’ spotted an object in the sewage. He picked it up and brought it home with him. He’s totally nuts, if you hadn’t figured that out yet.
The next day, he showed me what it turned out to be, after a lot of cleaning and polishing: a hollow cast silver teddy bear, three or four inches tall and pretty cute for something found sitting in sewage. I still wonder how long it’d been down there.
For me, the oddest thing I’ve ever flushed down the toilet is a tampon.
My Ex-boyfriends, Ex-Wifes, Brother-in-Law (huh?) used to live in the same flats as Dennis Neilson… the BiL acutally called the plumbers in who found out that Neilson has been flushing various body parts… nice!
I recently saw on TV an interesting suggestion on things to throw in toilets. Apparently, it’s all the rage to throw a poop-sized piece of jarrah (substitute with another dark hardwood, if you’re a foreigner). The wood will become saturated and too heavy to flush. Looks just like a stubborn, unflushable poop - but imagine the hilarity when a brave soul tries to break it up with a stick or toilet brush or whatever.
