The other day when Papa and I took the calves to some friends house for the winter we moved a bag of chicken feed. That's when it started. Today it ended. Under the mini bag of feed was a pallet. Under the pallet... Yup you guessed it. A pack rat. I shudder just thinking about it. It had a nest under the pallet and when we moved the pallet it went under the house. So Papa says no big deal we'll just starve the cats for a few days. They'll get him. That was Tuesday last week. The 30th of Sept. Skip to Friday. I open the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen. There is a 3 gallon bucket of soap stuff and on the top of the bucket is a rat poop. Just one. Papa didn't even believe me until I made him come look. So he set up the mouse trap. It can't be THAT big... Right?? Sunday morning Papa was in the bathroom early in the morning, the one beside the kitchen. And he comes out and calmly tells me that the rat has found the pipe line between the kitchen and bathroom. He heard the rat in there while he was on the toliet. Now I understand instantly the smell I've been smelling for the last few days. Rat's stink. They reek of pee. REEEEEEKKK. And here I thought I just really needed to clean my bathroom. With 2 little boys in the house this is a constant job. So nothing happens. It's Sunday we go to home church. Check the trap. Nothing. Don't hear anything. Nothing. Monday comes along and the trap is flipped upsidedown. No Rat. BIG RAT. Papa says it's time to get a bigger trap. Yesterday, Tuesday, we pop into town and while we are there we get a rat trap. A BIG one. Haha now we'll get him. Well we work outside all afternoon. Come in worn out, eat some quick soup, get the kids to bed and Papa gets ready for work. Papa hits the sack early as he's got to get up at 4am. After he's in bed I sneak in to ask about the trap. Leave it out I'll do it in the morning. He says. Where is it?? I ask. (I'm one of those people who trap their own fingers and never do get the thing set up right or I'd have done it myself.) In the Travelall. Well then half a nights not much better then no night. It'll keep til tomorrow. OH BOY. In reflection I should have gone and gotten it and MADE him set it up. A dead rat I can live with for a day til he comes home to clean it up. A live rat in my KITCHEN at 8:45am is a great way to wreck a day.. never mind your nerves.
I was on the computer writing a friend a note.. And I heard the kitchen cupboard door open and shut. That's weird as all the kids where still in bed!! I glance over and there is a THING on the floor in the kitchen. It had managed to push the door open and find it's way into my kitchen. MINE. Though I must say it looked pretty surprised. The door had shut after it so it couldn't even leave. It was trapped. Now before we go on I have a confession. I HATE MICE, RATS and anything that scurries. Snakes included. I'm shuddering just thinking about it. And I come by it naturally. Out of 5 siblings and 2 parents only one of us does not HATE these things and that is my Dad. Dad is at work. Papa is at work. My neighbor is gone all week. My other neighbor is on vacation. BUT I have a Brother in Law who lives just down the road. But 1st maybe I can get it back in the cupboard. So I go get the broom so that I can open the door from a ways away. I have 3 children sleeping in one room behind me and my baby sleeping in the room in the front. That leaves the enterance addition, kitchen, living area and bathroom. So I really don't want to chase it anywhere. So I go to open the door with the handle of the broom, the rat panics. I panic. The rat climbs into my dishwasher...loaded with clean dishes. GROSSS. I get the door open and chase the rat out of the dishwasher trying to get it back under the cupboard. 1st mistake. I should have closed the dishwasher door and just turned it on. Drowned rat. Didn't even cross my mind. I was thinking 'clean dishes get it out of the dishes.' and 'Gross rat on my dishes.' It goes out of the dishwasher but knocks the door shut in the process. OK. Open the door agian.. rat runs into the dishwasher. 'Shudder'. Chase the rat back out of the dishwasher while holding the door open. No go. The rat cannot find it's way out of the kitchen. OK. Time to call the calvery. KOREY!!! So I called my brother in law. He's home. He's coming. Turn around... just in time to see the rat run to the bedroom. MY BEDROOM. MY BABY IS IN THAT BEDROOM. Take a deep breath. While I was chaseing the rat around the kitchen it jumped up on the sides of the cupboards trying to get on the counter. So I knew this thing could jump. Baby R sleeps in a playpen with a bassenet. So I gingerly opened the bedroom door and grabbed her. LOL. I didn't see the rat. I suspect it was already hiding in the closet. She was awake and happy and fine. By this time it was about 9:30 and the kids where up. So I left the rat to itself and went and got the kids up and dressed and ready to run if needed. About half way thru my dressing the kids Korey shows up. YAHOO Help has arrived. Korey had Papa's hockey stick. We talk for a minute and Korey goes out to get the trap. Baits it with a bit of apple and puts it in the bedroom. We are both hoping the little bugger is starving and will come out and get himself killed. We wait around a bit and don't see anything. Our house is small so we have serious clutter in the closets. We figure he's in the closet. The closet is FULL of stuff. Korey grabs the playpen and puts it on our bed. There now we can see. Nothing. We push the trap farther in the closet. Nothing. We are both super nervous. Turns out Korey hates mice/rat's as much as I do. We decide to leave him for a bit and see what happens. So we close the doors up and stuff towels under them. We don't want him in the rest of the house. We are both praying for that trap to snap. Nothing. I get the kids too the table and mix up some yogurt and jam for breakfast. Cut up the rest of the apple and feed that to the kids. They are excited. Nothing from the bedroom. We make small talk and give nervy glances towards the door. E bangs her heels on the bench and I jump. Nothing. 20 minutes later we decide he's not hungry. We've got to go in there and GET HIM. We open the door and look at the trap. Nothing. We move some more stuff and take the closet doors off. Still nothing. Korey is sweating and shaking and I'm moving in twiches around trying to work off some serious nerves. Nothing. Korey gets his nerve up and starts to pull stuff out of the closet. Nothing. He shines a big flashlight around. Nothing. He's checked out half the closet. I mention that I really hope we get the rat and not have to wonder where it went. Korey stops. "Oh we'll find it alright. If we weren't both terrified of them we probably wouldn't but we will." Right I forgot about Murphy. He is out there. Korey keeps on moving stuff. He moves Papa's amp and jerks back. Both of us are almost to the kitchen before we even realized we moved. Korey is swearing. He really hates rats. But now we know the rat IS in there. When Korey took the amp out, well half out, the rat was sitting there looking at him over the amp. Now he's behind Papa's store of instraments, banjo, fiddle, mandolin. Three cases. A few books around the cases. Trapped. Now what? Now we have to kill him. Rats are horrible creatures. They smell and make a mess. They fight when cornered. They pee on things. They bite.
We think for a bit. Korey tells me if I ever have another rat; don't call him. He's only half kidding. Korey still has the hockey stick. I get a sharp knife. And the duct tape. Korey tapes the knife to the stick. This will work. The rat is sitting right there between the two smallest cases. Korey is just going to stab him with the knife. We wait. He just can't. I don't blame him at all. This is a bad idea. What if it doesn't die? What if we if injure it? What if it, like Korey said, comes out an runs over his foot. That would be terrible. That would be the worst. Korey askes if we have a pellet gun. We have a BB gun. Korey takes it outside and shoots it. Too wimpy. Won't kill a rat. Korey is thinking hard. The rat tries to get out. We yell at it. STAY PUT RAT. We are both shaking. We are wimps... but we really hate rats. Korey has a great idea. ERIC!! Eric can help. Eric has the day off. Eric is not so scared of rats. Eric is Koreys little brother. And Eric can bring a pellet gun. He calls. He weedles. Eric will come!! And Eric can bring a pellet gun. Wahoo. The rat will die. But Eric doesn't know where we live. He's going to call back and Korey will guide him. He calls back a minute later. There is no ammo for the pellet gun. Korey shakes his head. HE has a pellet gun. Why the heck didn't he think to go get his. He gives me the flashlight we are using to keep the rat in the closet. You guard the rat until I get back he tells me. OK I can do this. The kids are in their bedroom, playing nicely. Korey lives 5 minutes away. It's a long 10 minutes. I guard the rat. It tries to get away. I yell at it and it stays put. Korey drives up. But he leaves his car at the end of the driveway so Eric can see it. He has his pellet gun. He loads and shoots a few times. I think this is a good idea. We don't want to miss. The rat moves. I yell somemore. I hate rats. Korey comes in a we find a shot. He shoots!! We find ourselves almost to the kitchen again. We go back. The rat is not dead. We can hear it and see it move. Korey pokes it with the knife/stick/spear. It moves. Korey shoots agian. Head shot. Eric is here. It moves again. I can see it breathing. Korey shoots it again. These rats are tough. Eric comes in and we all take another look. Eric is not as scared of rats. He moves a book. The rat moves again. I'm holding the flashlight and Korey has the pellet gun. I shine. Korey shoots!!! WAP!! Blood flies. The rat is dead. Korey and I back up. Eric gets some gloves on and he takes the rat outside. It's a good sized rat. Korey and I think it's huge. Eric is not as impressed. He's seen bigger. We take pictures. The Rat is dead. We all take a deep breath. I hope to never have to do that again. I ask Korey. "If I ever have another rat can I call you??" He laughs "Sure if you ever have other rat." All is well that ends well.
Thank you ever so much Korey and Eric for running to my rescue. This would happen on a day Papa is at work. Just my luck. You guys are awesome. I owe you one!!
And now I must go. The bedroom is in shambles and I have a ton of laundry to do. Who knows what that rat touched. Hopefully it was a he rat and not a she rat.... one rat is quite enough.
