When I heard glassware moving in the living room tonight, I thought it was just the cats chasing one another. Nonetheless, I decided to check it out to be sure nothing was going to be broken. Loki was standing by the shelves next to the fireplace where I keep my orange carnival glass. He was trying to get at something behind one of the plates on the bottom shelf. I then saw what appeared to be a mouse crouching in the corner of the shelf.
I called to Patrick and, after getting some work gloves and a large bucket, he grabbed the little guy and tossed him in the bucket. And then we discovered he was not a mouse but a baby rat! The extremely long tail gave his identity away. He was rather wet, leading us to believe that one of the cats (probably Loki) had carried him in from outside. He didn’t seem to be hurt, so Patrick hauled him across the street and dumped him in the ivy at the curb.
And that was it…or so we thought.
As I put dinner on the table, I noticed that Murphy was no where to be seen. Since he is always hanging out around the table at dinnertime, hoping for something to fall on the ground, I went out back and called him. He came running from a small flowerbed next to the side wood fence. When I tried to get him in the house, he ran back to the flowerbed. Then I knew we had a problem…
Upon checking I found a huge pile of dirt where he had been foraging. He had dug deeply–about a foot into the ground–exposing the underside of the concrete next to the flowerbed. And his nose and face were covered with dirt. We couldn’t see any rodents, but I’m certain he found a rats’ nest.
So I’ll take my steel rake out there tomorrow in case I find any little critters–and will beat the shit out of them! Having found a rats’ nest underground once before, I expect that’s what Murphy dug up. Would prefer to poison them, but all the rat poisons seen to be toxic to pets, so that’s not a viable option. Last time I killed about 15 of them–babies plus mom and dad–so these guys better enjoy their last night on earth tonight!
6 users commented in " Rats! "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackDamn, man, Cathy’s tough!
Your damn right! I filled in the hole, but am almost certain they are living under the concrete. When I went out back with Murphy and told him to go get ’em, he ran back and forth along the edge of the fence sniffing. I think they have tunneled out an area about 15-20 feet long. Possibly part of the reason we are having problems with the retaining wall collapsing … or maybe a result of the retaining wall collapsing.
we have gophers around my building at work. everytime the maintainence guy finds one of their holes, he sticks a hose down there to drown them out. sometimes he feels bad about doing this, so he’ll take the gopher inside, dry it off, feed it crackers, and then release it into another area. so far, i’ve seen him save 3 gophers, but its only the ones that fight back and try to bite him.
My dad caught a raccoon one time and released it miles away from our home…and then a week or so later discovered her babies in our garage. He had to drown them because they were on the edge of death anyway, and their momma was never coming back anyway. Poor raccoons.
But, get those rats, Cathy!
My sister, Kelly, rescued some baby racoons whose mother was hit by a car in front of her house. She actually bottle-fed them and raised them till they were old enough to fend for themselves and could be released into the wild. Ask Patrick about them. We have pix of him holding them and playing with them when they were about 4-6 weeks old!
The picture of Patrick with a racoon on his head is the best 🙂
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