Unfortunately, we’ve had a mouse problem for yonks. The exterminator came last year and left boxes of bait, and the mouse presence seemed to decline. However, a few days ago I found the boxes spread all over the floor. I thought, “We have a rat–no mouse could move those boxes that far.” However, I didn’t see any other clues to his whereabouts. Previously, if we left a loaf of bread out on top of the fridge, when we got up in the morning a tunnel would be eaten through the wrapper and into the loaf. We now keep bread in the microwave or in the fridge, and that seems to work. But evidence of mice seems to turn up regularly. I didn’t want to say anything to HWMBO as he’s very squeamish about rats and mice.
This evening we were finishing our evening chores and HWMBO, who had bought some mooncake for the September festival, suggested we have 1/4 mooncake each and a cup of tea while we watched Six Feet Under. As I went to fill the kettle, I looked down at the floor, and saw, next to the door into the garden, a middling-large rat. It didn’t move, it wasn’t waving its tail or anything. HWMBO said, “He’s dead!” but when I made a noise, it slowly turned its head to look at me. It was as if it were asking to be let out of the house.
We got a shoebox, dropped it over the rat, and opened the door, pushed the box out into the garden, and shut the door quickly. The rat obviously had eaten some of the bait, as he was bleeding and couldn’t stand up or walk around very well. We watched him totter around a while, but he was too big to drop a stone on and I wasn’t happy to try to pick him up and drown him, as I do with mice caught in the sticky traps we have around. I suppose we could get a cat, but I’m not very comfortable with taking responsibility for yet another cat. I’ve had three or four, and two dogs, and I think that my pet-experiencing days are about over.
I just looked out the back window again, and the poor rat is still moving a bit. I do hope it expires overnight. While I don’t want to inflict unnecessary pain on any animal, a foot long (tip of nose to tip of tail) rat is not something I wish to have in my house. And the mental picture of the rat slowly turning its head to look at me as if asking to be let out of the house will probably figure very prominently in my dreams tonight.