March 22, 2004
Bob 1, Rats 0
To celebrate the arrival of spring, we killed a rat last night.
It turns out the mystery creature I referenced earlier was indeed a rat, and hopefully there was only one. He was apparently living in the wall behind the fridge, which doesn't have a baseboard for some reason (I'll remedy that very soon). We had noticed that the dog was eating her food much faster than usual this past week. Since she never overeats, I always fill her dish whenever she empties it, but the other night I decided to let her wait til morning for more food. This also coincided with a newly cleaned kitchen, which hadn't happened in a while.
The container in which we keep the dog food has a cracked corner, which I sealed with a piece of duct tape a while ago. Incidentially, this is the same container from which I ate many many pretzles as I grew up. So in the morning I noticed that the tape on the corner of the container was all chewed off. Immediately I knew there were rodents afoot.
After a bit of investigation, I discovered droppings and dog food behind the fridge, and I knew this was no small mouse. Thankfully Dave had brought over some rat traps the other day (I was planning on using them in the attic for the squirrel), so after cleaning out the nest of grocery bags and leaves, I set the trap with some peanut butter (hydrogenated, just in case he licked it all off, then hopefully he'd die of a coronary in a few years) and bits of dog food. I even thought to wall off the trap with some boxes so we wouldn't break the dog's face or paws.
At about 11:30 we heard a THWACK and a bit of thrashing around. And I knew I'd won at least the first round. There he was, the vermin from the pit of the sewer, freshly dead with its head pinned to the board. I was a bit disgusted at his size, as his body was a good 6 inches and he was quite plump. I don't mind the thought of a little mouse in the house, but something that big, creeping around my kitchen, carrying who-knows-what diseases and whatnot, nearly able to take down my dog in a fight (she's about 7 pounds) -- that's just gross.
Score one for the good guys.
Posted by bobw at March 22, 2004 08:33 AM
ugh. barf. odiousness. I hope that's your only one.
We once had a rat at mother's house in Holtwood, PA (think middle-of-nowhere). It looked similar to this fella: http://www.ofb.net/~epstein/sl/giant-rat.jpg
Hooray! Glad to hear the vermin's been nicked.
The score is now Bob 2, Rats 0. Got another this evening. A good deal smaller than the first, but no matter: his skull is cracked and he's with his momma in the trash can where he belongs.
score one for the bad guys...it's now Bob 2, Rats 1. I forgot to put away the dog's food last night, and there was a little bit left in the bowl before we went to bed, and it was all gone in the morning. we won't make that mistake again.
wanna borrow our cat Bela? He won't help with rats, but he'll sit around and catch mice...
Bob 3, Rats 1. Got another small one, and this time it was a bit more gruesome. He was apparently small enough to eat the dog food off the trap (so maybe I should give the rats a half point?), and it seems as he was leaving he set it off and it caught him on his back and up his side. Michelle thought she heard some trashing, and there was a little pool of blood and one of his eyes bugged out. I wonder how high the body count will go?
Bob 4, Rats 1. OK this is getting old. I think we'll invest in some poison soon.
Bob, you are a beautiful man. I wonder at myself for not having informed you of this in a more timely manner. This is really all that I have to say; not much of a comment for the rat massacre, methinks.
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