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Sydney killed another rat early Thursday morning. Or maybe the killer was some other cat; the rat was left in the middle of the lawn, and Sydney usually dumps her presents at the back steps.

I found the rat Thursday afternoon. I’ll leave it for the possum, I thought.

The rat was still there Friday. Guess the possum wants it a little riper, I thought.

Saturday the rat started to stink. I made sure not to open the bedroom window, which opens to the lawn. Sitting on the patio wasn’t too bad, depending which way the breeze blew. There were probably maggots, but I wasn’t going to check. Tomorrow, I thought, tomorrow I’ll have to bury it.

Early Sunday morning I woke to the smell of rat, then went back to sleep. After my husband and I were both awake, I offered to toss a coin for the privilege of burying the rat. Lucky me! He had a brand-new shovel he wanted to try out.

He came back in a few minutes later. “The rat wasn’t there.”

Yum. Guess that possum was letting it age to perfection.

Sorry, no photos this time.

Many years ago, when she was a fine young Catholic carnivore, my daughter was parade queen for the IDES Gloria Council No. 3. (She’s the one on the left; that’s my son on the right.)

The Irmandade do Divino Espirito Santo (IDES) and Sociedade do Espirito Santo (SES) are fraternal benefit societies that hold Holy Ghost festas every spring in Portuguese enclaves throughout the world. And in Portugal and the Azores, of course.

Each festa committee selects a big queen and a little queen to lead the parade that starts off the festa. The parade marches from the hall, loops through the neighborhood to the church, then after mass returns to the hall where everyone lines up to eat sopas, a watery beef and mint soup poured over bread. (It tastes much better than it sounds.) The sopas is served free to everyone in honor of a sainted Portuguese queen who said, “Let them eat bread.” (Sort of.)

And if you want to make your very own sopas, you can find the recipe here. (I set up the printing but don’t receive any profit from sales.)

The festas are scheduled in conjunction with Easter; a particular festa might be held every year the fifth week after Easter. Here’s the California festa schedule.

The history of the festas is pretty interesting, but I’m no expert and not even Portuguese. Better information can be found in The Holy Ghost Festas. It’s apparently out of print, but Sacramento’s Greenhaven/Pocket Area — look, parade queens on the cover! — is still available.