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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The three days of the rat

It began on Monday. I woke up to see that one of the ceiling vents from the defunct central heat/air system had fallen to the floor. I was worried because squirrels and rats live in the attic so I fixed it right away, but later that night I was surprised to see a rat walk into the kitchen and give me the gimlet eye ;) I chased him around, trying to somehow catch him but he was too elusive.

The next day, Tuesday, I got an old humane trap from the garage and left it with some peanut butter but he either didn't go into it or it was too rusty to work properly. That night my sis came over and helped me try to find him with no luck. Later that night he was scurrying about again and I cornered him in the kitchen, trying to catch him by throwing a blanket on him, but he was too speedy. I involuntarily screamed a bunch of times when he came close, probably scaring him more than he scared me. After he disappeared for a while I left some peanuts for him in Kermit's old cat carrier and a bowl of water - feeling guilty for traumatizing him ;).

Today, Wednesday, I looked online for advice on how to catch him and saw that I could put some peanut butter in the bottom of a garbage can .... I could put things next to it for him to climb up on, but once he had jumped inside, he wouldn't be able to get back out. So I emptied my garbage can - not much fun - and dragged it inside to a secluded place and set it up. My sister came over after work and we looked into the can - he wasn't there. She was just about to leave when we heard a crunching sound coming from Kermit's cat carrier. Quickly my sister closed the door to the carrier and then looked inside - this time it was she who involuntarily screamed ;) There he was (and probably deaf by then). We took the carrier outside by a tree and some shrubs and and left it with the door wedged open. I'm so glad he's gone - hope he's ok.

Here's a photo I took awhile ago of one of the rats in my yard ....


3 Comments:

Anonymous Victor said...

(((Here's a photo I took awhile ago of one of the rats in my yard ....)))

Crystal, your story really brought a lot of memories into mind about while my wife and i were growing up with our five daughters and I could write a book about "IT" but "I" hate writing.

Anyway, we've had a lot of rats in our first house which came in from our basement, I mean crawl space but our loving cats took care of them. I still remember vividly one cat that we named FautFune and don't ask me what "IT" means and why we called her that. I recall a few of U>S (usual sinners) watching her, our cat playing outside with a mouse and long story short, we all felt sorry for that mouse and "IT" was almost like Fautfune knew that we didn't want that mouse to be eaten and she let the mouse go while giving U>S all a spiritual smile and "IT" still brings a few tears to my eyes remembering that we found her dead in the middle of our road one morning on our way to work and me, myself and i thank GOD (Good Old Dad) that none of our children saw her that way.

I'll close by saying that we could lend ya "Tiger" but even longer story short, not "ONE" rat would bother you if ya get my drift cause he's a real Tiger. :)

Hugs

11:53 AM  
Blogger crystal said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

1:01 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Victor,

Thanks. Yes, if only Kermit were still here, she would have made short work of that poor little rat :)

1:02 PM  

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