I woke up this morning with an upset stomach and decided I'd better stay home from work. Since I wasn't well and didn't feel up to doing much, I laid down on the couch in the living room with a cup of coffee and a book. Before long, both of our cats had come into the room at different times and sat quite still, intent on watching the entertainment unit. It didn't take me long to figure out the rat was keeping me company in the living room.
After about 20 minutes, I finally spotted the darn thing on top of a set of bookshelves. Because there was no easy way for it to get up or down, I thought I could get the sticky traps out of the pantry and put them at either end of the bookshelf. By the time I got back with the traps, though, he had jumped back to the entertainment center.
I spent another 20 minutes or so catching occasional glimpses of him. I'd see his little nose pop out from behind something or I'd see movement behind the DVD player. At one point, I saw him on top of entertainment center, calculating whether he could jump from there to another set of bookshelves, but he realized it was too far. Soon he returned to the first side and made the leap--right into a sicky trap!
He tried to leap out of the trap, but both he and the trap tumbled off the bookshelf and onto the floor. He pulled himself, still attached to the trap, behind a small trunk, while I went to find Hubby so he could deal with what followed. I refused to watch. I actually think rats and mice are cute, and this one had been a house guest--practically a family member!--for several months, even if he had outstayed his welcome. I felt bad about just about everything except for the fact that we were finally rid of an unwanted pest.
As it turned out, Hubby deposited the rat, still attached to the sticky trap, into the garbage. For some reason, he checked on the rat a couple times during the day, bringing me unwanted updates. Finally, he announced the rat had freed himself from the trap but was still stuck in the garbage can. Of course, I went out there, raised the lid, and stuck a broom inside to assist him in his escape efforts. After all, I don't want any bad murdered rat karma or feelings of guilt any more than I want a rat in my house!
Bye, little guy!
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14 comments:
Oh you are a soft touch. LOL I wonder how long before the little fella is back inside.
Um, if that pic is one of your furry visitor, you might like to know it's a gerbil (rats have bald tails, gerbils have furry tails). It was probably someone's pet that escaped. I wish you luck in eradicating him! :)
It's a gerbil? Oh! Well then I'll miss him a little bit too. LOL
you spent $$$ to relocate this dude ..... and you let him go free!!!! girlfriend, he's gonna find a way back into the cushy life .....
we farm girls would have left him in the bin!!!
i'm a farm girl and no way would i have left the poor thing in the bin. he would not have ended up there in the first place. and sticky traps? i can't think of anything more cruel. if you must kill what you consider a pest, do it humanely at the very least.
yes, karma does indeed exist.
Ok, either that rat is very small or that plant is very large.. hard to tell perspective from the photo.. Just so you know (not that you care!lol) I had in my head visions of this very large mean rat who hissed at you all...
Or maybe it is a gerbil...doesn't matter.. I would have run screaming and yelling and later would have had to clean the coffee out of the carpet...
These comments are cracking me up...
Hope you're feeling better...
You did what!?
He has grown up in your house and probably thinks of it as his house to and so will try to get back in. Shame on your Hubby for telling you. He should have just said it was taken care of!
Well whatever he is, he's cute! Did you ever get around to naming him/her?
Ooh, I am glad you got it out of your house! I've read from several bloggers about finding a rat. Now I'm worried there may be one in my house.
You are a kind hearted soul -- this made me remember once when we had a mouse in our house. I cornered it behind the stereo and sucked it up into a canister vacuum (no bag inside) and then I took the vacuum across the street and let the mouse escape into the cemetery that is there. Hopefully he had a happy mouse life, outside!
NO Karma does not exist God says there is GRACE!!! grace means unmeritted favor, something we dont derve....Kill the damm thing they carry virus like Hanta ,,read about it!! fleas etc. Could even infect your cats ...
I would have set him free too. In fact we had one recently in the house too and we shooed him outside. It is not a gerbil but a mouse. I think that wild mice are cute, they have such BIG eyes. I just don't want them in my house either! With 5 cats we rarely get them in the house. I brought the little fella in when I unknowingly, scooped him out of the dog food container in the garage! Dumped him right into the dog's bowl. Surprised us both!! LOL
I don't believe in Karma. Rats are vermin. We just cleaned out rat feces and urine from the garage and it was D-I-S-G-U-T-I-N-G. I do not want that in my house.
Harbingers of disease is what they are.
I won't mess with them if they're out and about. But in the house or garage, it's war.
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