Sensitive vegetarians and rat lovers skip this one.
After my awful night with the rat I couldn't bear to eat anything in the house, even if there was no way the rat could have touched it. So by the time I got into town for my rat trap shopping I was pretty hungry, and strangely craving red meat (I think in reaction to all the adreneline residue still in my body). I bought a rat trap and a fly swat. I ate a steak at a steakhouse where I was the only diner (it was good). I bought a box of dusty old jars at an op shop. I went to the Warehouse and consoled myself with that peculiar form of discount retail therapy that the Warehouse does so well -and in the US Target and Walmart- they may be evil but they know what makes you feel good. I bought a rat proof rubbish bin and a vacuum cleaner for the rat poop and dead flies. I got seriously lost in Whangarei on the way home so I bought a bottle of vodka.
Town took all afternoon but when I got back to Purua, it was still a beautiful 27 degrees at 5pm. I had a stiff drink and set the rat trap (with difficulty and lots more adreneline surges everytime I missed and it went slam). I went for a long walk up over the hill and down into the next valley (Riponui). I came home again and there was a dead rat which I put outside. I reset the trap and started feeling better about living here. I slept long and deep. No more rats so far. Today I can make some books.
6 comments:
Hoorah!
I recommend peanut butter as bait - it has never failed me. But obviously your bait did the trick.
I so understand what you are going through. Once, when I was a little girl, my family went on holiday to a friends bach (holiday home) in Piha. When we got there we discovered that an Opossum had got in somehow and had got trapped inside. It freaked out, shitting all over the bach before dying under once of the beds. The smell was unbelievable.
None of us stayed in the bedroom when the Opossum had died, instead we all slept in the lounge.
I recommend letting of tonnes of incense and aromatherapy and having a bit of a cleansing ritual.
Oh, and if that Vodka had ill effects I recommend two Beroccas dissolved in Fanta with a couple of Panadols.
Bless
At least you had plenty of training for this in Tiganesti and 1 Von Tempsky Street!
Peanut butter is my tried and true- especially as there is no cheese in my dairy-free house.
And as my brother David suggests in his comment I have had a lot of childhood experience of rats. When we lived in Romania when I was 7 I woke one night to a rat running across the coverlet in front of my face. And our house in Hamilton by the Waikato River was plagued by rats. David is the hero of my favourite rat story and I hope he doesn't mind if I write it here (and forgives any differences in my memory to his):
Christmas Day, we had opened out presents and David (4ish?) had gotten a cowboy outfit complete with guns. The rest of us were sitting around, probably stuffing ourselves with mum's stollen when we heard David calling for reinforcements. I went to investigate and found him holding a huge rat at bay in a corner with his toy guns!
Sounds like quite the battle with just one rat. How is it that something so small can cause so much trouble?
I had my own rat experience in India. You can read it if you think it might be interesting!
Good luck keeping the rats out!
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