Rats!

Our house has stairs to the roof which allow access for humans to the roof and rats into the house. We assumed they would come in periodically, but when we put plastic up around the openings to help keep the warmth in, we heard the “crinkle, crinkle, crinkle” of our housemates from 9 PM every night.

The other night we noticed the teeth marks on the bar of soap next to the sink in the kitchen. Having gotten Sandy’s assurance that she did not make the marks, I decided it must be the rats. I spent a couple of days trying to seal up all the openings to the roof and, not surprisingly, the rats still found their way in. Last night we tried a Nepali rat trap. It is really humane way to catch the rats…just put a little bait in a cage and when the rat grabs it the door closes. The fact that they drown the rat after the caught it struck me as less humane.
This morning, I was like a child at Christmas… I could not wait to see if I had a present in my trap. Low and behold, our housemate was waiting for me. He seemed less excited to see me than I him. I decided catch and release was better than drown and bury, so I took the guest in his trap to a field. I had seen the TV shows where they do the catch and release thing and the animal always runs right away. Apparently the rat had missed those episodes and as soon as he got out of the open cage he jumped 10 feet high (maybe less …I was a little surprised) at me. I jumped, he ran and now he has a new home in an open field.