Rat Tails

A few weeks ago I posted something about the rat that has been terrorizing our house.

You can ask anyone here. They all have great stories to tell about the rats that have entered their house. In fact, we heard one today from some friends, who once caught a rat who was hiding in the hallway toilet! So funny.

We've had rats before and caught four of them. Blah. These are not sweet, little Cinderella mice, this is like Templeton sneaking in and partying like the Chipmunks every night.

After the four rats were caught and killed, we had a reprive. Then one day little rat droppings were seen on the kitchen floor, then on the countertop, and then last week, he dared enter the house while we were eating dinner! He comes in under the door. Andrew and Elizabeth saw him streak around the corner and hide behind the box in our living room. The guys tried to corner him so Brent could kill him with the stick. But that rat is a fast little devil. He got scared and ran out the same way he came in before anyone could move. Not only is he a fast devil, he is daring too. We had these thin, white glue traps that really don’t do anything, but decided to stick in front of the door just to see. Well, a few hours later, Brent and Elizabeth are coloring at the table and he hears a noise behind him. When he turns around and the rat has gotten caught by the hind end and has pulled the trap back under the door with him, by the time Brent got to the door the rat is running down the drainage and carrying the trap with him!! He jumps into a bush and somehow shimmies out of the trap and takes off. Hahaha! 

The next day, Brent and I were in the kitchen getting lunch (and probably trying to decide what to cook for supper - because you have to start early here! haha!), when the rat ran from left corner by the stove straight under the fridge. He almost stepped on my feet. I jumped up and down and made loud, weird noises because I couldn't get the word "RAT!" to come out of my mouth! Brent whirled around with a shocked look on his face that said "what in the world just happened". I thought he saw the rat and I finally said "What are you doing??!!" because I was expecting him to run follow the rat into the living room, but he was just standing there! Then Brent just said "What are YOU doing??!!" 

 I looked at him probably in disbelief and said, "did you not see that rat?!" His reply was "no, I was trying to figure out what you were doing!!" I told him that was my rat signal and now he would know for next time what that meant! 

This all happened in about 10 seconds, enough for the rat to make his way under the fridge and thru the wall (where there is NO hole in the wall - I have no idea. Rats are magic.) Then the girls yelled for their daddy to come. Elizabeth was standing next to the buffet and Breanna was sitting with her feet in the chair and they both were looking at the door because the rat kept running past them and out the door. 

This was crazy. He was getting daring to show himself in broad daylight! Glue traps seem to be the way to get rats here, so we set them out. At the time, we still only had these thin, white ones, but we thought we would try them anyway. He seemed to have a trap radar and be able to avoid them. 

On Wednesday night, we ordered Cafe Havana 3, a restaurant where we typically buy pizza, calzones, or fish fingers and fries. They had opened back up recently and were available for delivery or takeout.  It was one of those nice lazy days where you don't want to cook supper, so we called in a delivery.  We ordered our food about 1:45. You have to order early here because it takes about 2 hours or so for delivery. They are also short staffing their restaurant right now so there are not as many people working. Supper came and went. We had 2 ham and cheese calzones to split because they are huge and fish fingers with fries. Brent ordered four wings for himself. We watched a movie and went to bed. 

The next morning, Thursday,  Brent walked in to the living room and noticed the wings had been left out on the table. They were still covered..... almost. There was a slight crack at the end of the aluminum box where the top was slightly moved. He opened the box and there were only two wings left. Yep. You got it. That rat climbed on to the table, pushed the cover back or something and pulled a wing out of the box! Not only that, there was a wing bone licked clean laying on our couch and the rest of the wing was under the couch!! This must be the Rocky Balboa of rats mixed with a little James Bond.

So gross. 

On Friday, we sent Ian to the store to buy 12 heavier rat glue traps and lined the doors with them that night. We have been on a routine of watching a movie several nights during the week after supper or during supper. We were all sitting watching the movie in peace, when there was movement at the door! A rat came in! But he was small! This was not our big rat, this was the big rat's goon. We decided he must have been sent to spy out the night's hit. This little mouse, had big circle ears like Mickey Mouse and little black eyes that were wide open. His face was even cute. But cute or not, Andrew disposed of him.

We went to bed and woke up yesterday to find another small mouse had come in thru the same door and perished by way of the glue trap. He was not as cute of a goon as the first little guy. He was fuzzy and gross.  On further inspection of the house, we saw that the rat had eaten thru our bread box! He was trying to get to the tortillas that he had gotten a taste of the previous night with his wings. I forgot they were just in a ziploc and left  them on the counter. Seriously ate through my bread box.

Yesterday, I cleaned everything in the kitchen and living room. I used Clorox and Thieves cleaner to clean it all. I even wiped down the walls! Then I rearranged our food storage layout. I moved the bread box to the top of the shelf. I put the one thin white trap in the bottom of the buffet and put one underneath it. We still had our heavy duty green ones lining the doors. The house smelled so good! 

Early this morning (Sunday) before the sun came up, I heard something hit the floor in the kitchen. I stayed in bed for a few minutes because I wasn't sure I wanted to face off with a large rat by myself. I got up though with my phone flashlight and opened the kitchen door, I didn't walk in, I just shown the light around and didn't see any movement. I decided to check out the living room. I could hear noises when I opened the door!  I immediately put my light on the buffet. I heard all kinds of little tinkering noises. I thought this is it! He is inside the buffet and is about to get stuck on that rat trap. But my imagination pictured me opening the cabinet door and the rat jumping out on me in sheer anger at being trapped. So I didn't cross the living room. Oh my word! 

Then a movement came, I caught a glimpse of the rat as he CLIMBED UP THE WINDOW and got out! Our window are not open, they just all have slats at the top as you can see in the photo below. 

I just went back to bed. What was there to do now? 

A few hours later when we were surveying the kitchen, we noticed that the rat had gotten stuck on the glue trap and got himself off of it. He also managed to find the bread basket again and tried to pull the tortillas thru. The sound I heard was the toothpick holder being knocked off since our rat is a rock climber and climbed the shelf to top. How in the world did he even know it was up there!! He must have been mad that we rearranged or disposed of his goons, because there were rat dropping all over the kitchen floor. Anyways, he left via the kitchen window onto the top of the buffet. What I thought had been napkins that were chewed on in the night, was actually part of my crochet banner that my college roommate Tara made for me before we came! He chewed the end off of one side. It was just the string where you could hang it on the wall, so no damage done to the actual banner.   

Honestly, with the last four rats, I kept saying, "Lord, please get these rats out of our house!" and we caught them. But this one I have mixed feelings about. But this rat has provided lots of laughter, a fun mystery, and a little bit of excitement around here with his antics, leaving us wondering what he will do next. I do hope we catch him before he is comfortable enough to waltz in, sit down, and ask for a smoke and a glass of sweet tea while we play cards. I am interested to see just how big he is.

But we are to give thanks in ALL circumstances, right? 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. Don't worry, I didn't learn this myself, the idea came from Betsie Ten Boom, Corrie's sister, who gave thanks for fleas. Which they later learned, the fleas allowed them to have Bible studies every night in their barracks without fear of the guards coming in, because the guards hated the fleas. I wrote a post that included a little bit about the Ten Boom family here.

I also can't believe I dedicated an entire blog to stories about a RAT and I am laughing about it!

I’ll keep posted on the rat’s adventures in our house. There’s something new everyday!!