Rats!!

I should actually say, Rat! Yes, it’s finally come. We have a rat. We have heard scurrying in the attic in the past and pretty much whatever was up there stayed there and was gone after a month maybe. Well, when the same thing began to happen again I assumed it would go the same way. Well…no such luck. We have a bold one that has taken up residence under the kitchen counter (beside the under sink cupboard and along side the oven). We came home tonight from a friends place and we saw evidence that he had been out and about. As we were investigating we heard him in the bookshelf beside the fireplace. So we grabbed a broom and I cautiously opened the door. To my surprise that isn’t where he was, he instead showed his face out from behind Christy’s photo albums. I backed off and Christy shouted some choice words I will not type out for you since we are all nice people. So he jumped off the books and hid behind something that was sitting in front of the books on the shelf. He then jumped onto the floor (inspiring me to join Christy standing on the couch). As he hurried across the floor toward the kitchen (where I have decided that he lives) we both let out a loud shout which scared him and he jumped into the air at least 2.5 feet!!!

I felt foolish since I didn’t have the wherewithal to attack him with the broom I was holding but frankly, I have never killed anything larger than a stink bug in my life! Taking on a 12” rat isn’t my speed. I am a ‘behind the lines targeting precision weapons’ kind of guy, not hand to hand combat. So tomorrow, I will get to Home Depot as soon as they open to get a truck load of wooden snapping traps (and will return the mouse sticky pad since they will be useless). I think that his only way out into the kitchen has to be from under the oven so I will lay them out along the perimeter so that unless he hops over then he will have to step on one. Boy I really hope to kill him soon. Its unsettling hearing him scratch around under the counter. So until I can set up the traps I have closed all the doors in the house and stuffed a shirt tightly under the door / floor gap. The dog sleeps in the bedroom with us too so hopefully he will be happy to run around the rest of the house tonight. I hope he enjoys it because it might be his last.

I have been reading on the net about good ways to take out rats and have found all kinds of ways. In fact I found I site that I am rather enjoying (http://www.ratkill.com/). Check it out and look at some of the ‘rat tales’ to see what people like to do to get rid of rats. There are lots of great stories with chemicals, guns and explosives.

I will keep you posted on mine