RATS

And I mean that literally, well, at least one Rat. Gross and disgusting. I was hoping the critter in the house was a baby raccoon or a squirrel, I have access to a have a heart trap and my local animal control officer when I looked in the crawl space, I did not see any signs of raccoon in residence.

Last night around 9 PM, I was doing one last check of my e-mail and the terrier was very interested in my book case which sits just to the right of my desk, almost if not more interested in the corner of the bookcase than she had been at the exterior of the house. A quick look showed me nothing, but the dog would not stop sniffing. I trust her instincts more than I trust my eyes.

I pulled off the fragile items from the book case and pulled it a bit away from the wall. I saw the very long disgusting tail of, not a raccoon or squirrel, but a very large brown rat, sitting on top of my electric baseboard unit and tucked up against the bookcase, not easily accessible. I'm also in the middle of a nasty summer cold and all I wanted to puke. I'm already in my jammies and I'm ready for a hot whiskey and early bedtime. I ran to find my tall heavy duty rubber rain boots, no rat was gonna run across my feet! I could not pull the bookcase far enough away from the wall for the terrier to do it's job. I got the terrier mix and hoped that between the two of them, they might "dispatch the quarry". All I can say is I'm glad no one was there to take a photo, me in my old glasses, hair a mess, long nightshirt and old green wellies.



No such luck, the rat managed to evade the two dogs (despite me trying to get one to work one side of the book case, and one to work the other side) and it ended up under and eventually in my stove. Yup that's right IN my stove. How do I know, because one terrier sat fixated, panting and trying to gnaw off the end of the cupboard and stove. I pulled out the lower storage drawer and stuck my flash light in the bottom of the stove- I could see the rat securely ensconced between the interior and exterior wall of the stove. This channel is not used for much, the interior panel hold the hardware for the storage drawer and the space is the perfect size for rodents to hide. I could hear the rat crawling around the stove. Stoves have lots of empty spaces I found out, perfect for mice and other creatures to hang out.

I ended up moving the stove away from the wall, I could see the freaking rat hiding in the stove. I could not get it nor could the dogs. I had nothing to encourage it to move, all I had was a bottle of Method Cucumber spray. So I sprayed the rat with the Method spray (Method is non toxic, I was more concerned about my dogs than the rat). The rat did move, but to another in accessable section of the stove. I did this dance for about 90 minutes, seriously, I had my stove in the middle of my kitchen and I'm trying to dislodge a rat with Method Cucumber Spray. I finally gave up, I was soo tired and just not functioning.

The only good to come of this was that the floor under my stove got a long overdue mopping. Both terriers spent the night loose and I'm off to the hardware store to get rat sized traps. And I get to mop my floors really really well today. There is a little (nay large) odor of rat remaining. I am spending tonight at a friends house and hoping the traps do their job.

Edit: I just talked to my neighbor-she uses her house only on the weekends and has come up to a mouse and fly infestation. Equally gross.

What has this got to do with personal finance, not much, but hey hopefully the mental picture of someone trying to get a rat dressed in a pink night shirt, green wellies and only armed with a broom and Method Cucumber Spray gives you a laugh this morning.