Oh, Rats!

For eight years we had an out door cat that we never named. We simply called her "Here Kitty Kitty". She was a little weird but a good cat. For eight years we saw no traces or evidence of rodents.

The cat disappeared a few months ago. Guess what I found in the cupboard? Yep. Chewed up packages of snacks. And....poo.

We set out small mouse traps and nothing. Shawn set out small glue boards in the cupboard, garage, and laundry room. One night, I heard something banging around what sounded like the washing machine.

"SHAWN! I think you've got something in the laundry room!!!!" I hollered. I wasn't having anything to do with it.

Shawn goes into the laundry room and I maintain sanity in the kitchen. Not that I am afraid, though I am feeling self-conscious about animal cruelty and trying to keep the dogs as bay.

"We're staring each other down," Shawn exclaimed.

"What is it?" I call from the kitchen.

"A squirrel," Shawn replies.

"Uh-uh! You're lying!"

"Well, it's big enough to be a squirrel!"

A rat. A bonafied rat. With a glue board stuck to it's hind legs. Shawn tried to kill it but it got itself underneath the inner workings of the washing machine.

Shawn baited rat traps with peanut butter. He managed to catch his finger several times in the traps, however the rat managed to escape with all the peanut butter unharmed. We know this because it kept setting off the traps and leaving them clean.

Next, Shawn laid out small packets of rat poisoning. The rat didn't touch it. Period.

Next, Shawn created what he likes to call Super Supper. Peanut butter, honey, and rat poison mixed together and placed on a trap.

After that disappeared from a sprung trap, he baited it again with merely peanut butter. The treat is still sitting on the trap, untouched. Which means we have a dead rat somewhere in the house.

My guess would be the kitchen. Each day, the smell gets a little worse. It doesn't smell like sink mildew or garbage that is past its prime. It smells like death.

I pulled everything from under the sink and drowned the 60 year old wood in Pine-Sol. After the toxic smells of cleansers wained, I could still smell it.

Next to the cabinet under the sink is a Lazy Susan. This a normal cabinet with a rod down the middle. On the rod sits two shelves that turn. It is impossible to clean in there. I tried once, when we first moved in. I gave up.

The smell is worse there. I stand over the counter and the stench of death is breath taking. "Ooooh that smell! Can't you smell that smell? Ooooooh that smell! The smell of death around yoooooooo!!!!"

Credence Clearwater Revival must've written that song after finding a dead-something-or-another in a wall.

Today is the day I should be cleaning out the Lazy Susan. But we have a small problem (next post).

How does something that big get inside? Shawn figures when it first got cold, it came inside while small and grew. Either that, or it climbed in through the dryer vent. I'm going with the second option. I told Shawn we needed to get another outside cat.

Hence.....our Small Problem. It weighs ten ounces and I'm all typed out for now.

But for the record, no I don't feel bad about the dead thing in our cabinet (supposedly). Rats carry horrible diseases; they start pandemics. I was forced to throw out many useful, snackful items. I have cleaned up more poo than I care to clean up while off the clock. So, no I do not feel badly for this creature. I merely wish it had made it outside before it passed away.