They've messed with the wrong family!

The last few days have been very "interesting" around here. I alluded to it a bit in the first entry...the adventure going on under our house. I'm finally brave enough to talk about it. It all started last week, with some scratching noises in the middle of the night. A bit unnerving. Brad went under the house on Thursday to investigate it, with the intention of laying a few mouse traps. Well, that turned out to be an all afternoon event. It turns out we have a couple (?) rats living under there! I know, isn't your head itching just at the thought?! Do you relate to that? My head itches in response to...well, lots of things. As I type this, I've itched twice. Describe something gross to me, I'll have to itch. Tell me about a flea infestation, I'll itch for you. I could go on, but I'll get back to the rats. Brad took Edgar under the house with him to let him have a fun hunt. Then he put out a bunch of poison pellets and traps.

Early that evening, we noticed our phone line to the kitchen was dead. Yep, they chewed through that wire. Since they apparently are so "smart", I was hoping they were trying to use the line to call all their friends and alert them to the poison. "Abort! Abort!!"

Last night, continued scratching (apparently that means they are gnawing on something to sharpen their teeth! ew..more itching.). So today, we called in the big guns. He came in the form of Jeff from a local pest control company. And you know what? Jeff says they think trapping rats is fun! "Mice are so easy because they go into whatever trap you put out. But rats are smart and very suspicious, so it takes a lot of strategy and adjusting to get the rats. It makes it fun!" Well, thank God for people like Jeff!

He confirmed that these are Roof Rats. Roof Rats look like large mice. "They have kind of a cute look" Bless you, Jeff. They also leave a different type of dropping than the Norway Rat. Norway Rats are the more shaggy, nasty looking rats that I tend to picture. Excuse me...another head itch. They began hanging out at our house because of the abundant supply of bunny pellets on the side of the house. We thought those bunnies had been eating a lot. (Anyone in the market for a couple bunnies??) And it seems that our house is not insulated well enough to be very hospitable to rats setting up homes. But we have made a great place for them to get out of the cold and have a snack.

Trapping at our house may take some patience, because we learned that between the cat being down there, Brad being there, traps being a new thing in their familiar environment, etc., they will be very skittish and skeptical of anything. So, it's a process. Why does everything have to be a process?? I was hoping he would leave with 2 dead rats in the back of his truck, but no. The "process" starts tomorrow at 1:30, with the traps going down. A couple places where they have had easy access are being fixed. We'll get 'em. They've messed with the wrong family.

And get this...we also are not a hospitable environment for them to try to gain entry to the house because of "all the activity" in our house. Translation...3 kids. Beth in particular goes nowhere quietly. I am not telling her to be quiet until I know the rat problem is in our past. I am going to encourage her to walk down the hallway using big, booming steps. I'm going to encourage the kids, especially after dusk, to shout to one another from room to room, to slam their bedroom doors. Alex will not be practicing bassoon or saxophone until after dark. And he won't be allowed to play any soothing jazz-style music! No mood music for rats! And Brenna will practice her flute, sustaining a few high notes that are still being perfected. As I type this, Alex is playing the theme to Charlie Brown on the piano. That'll work. That's kind of a frantic-paced song. If they are trying to sleep, that'll keep them up. Again, they've messed with the wrong family.

So, there you have it. I have literally not slept peacefully or deeply since this started. I feel very jumpy and on-edge. I am very sleep deprived. This kind of thing really creeps me out. When I hear of a rat, I picture the sewer, garbage, etc. Not my home. Another itch.

I've heard from a couple of you that's it not easy to post a comment on this. That's one of the things I'm figuring out, what setting to choose for comments. I'll adjust it and see if it works.

Thanks for sharing my itch!