dRATS!

Back in the early fall Angela and I started to hear noises in our house. No, not ghosts but something alive, something with nails that clicked and made little squeaking noises. We shook it off thinking it just must be animals on the roof, most likely squirrels, and let it go. But then the noises got worse. We started to hear them during the day (well I did, sometimes all day long) and more frequently. After Thanksgiving (we didn't want to scare our house guest Susie too much) I placed a call to our landlord to ask about the noise. His response?

Squirrels on the roof. He joked about playing Alvin and the Chipmunks for them and blew me off. I was not impressed. So I marked down the day I called on my calendar and vowed to throw it in his face when whatever was up there, so evidently in the attic and maybe the walls, started eating through wires. I prayed there would not be an electrical fire or that whatever it was would come down to our level.

And then we got home from Michigan. And the noises grew louder and almost constant. Running, scratching, banging into things. Last weekend at one point I turned to Ang and said I think we have velociraptors up there. (Remember the claws clicking on the kitchen floor in Jurassic Park?!?!?! Yeah. I do.) I was gone Sunday afternoon for a while and it became too much for her. She called and left a rant on the landlord's voicemail. And this week the exterminators showed up.

I'm pretty sure Javier, our exterminator, thought I was a little nutso. The girl who was overreacting to nothing. He looked all around the inside and outside of the house and said things looked fine. He poked his head up in the tiny attic door inside my closet and said he couldn't see anything. But he set traps anyway, because that's his job, and said he'd be back Friday morning.

Thursday night Ang and I were sitting in my room just after she got home from work and we heard the critters. And then we heard a very audible snap. Ang started yelling she wanted the traps out - NOW. She didn't like this. I said there's not much we can do about it now, I'm not going up there. So we waited.

Friday morning Javier was here before 8am and came in with his ladder. I'm convinced he thought he'd find empty traps because he brought nothing to hold an animal. But when he came back down the ladder his eyes were wide and he said we had something. Two somethings. After I got him a grocery bag (no haz-mat bag or anything, I was a little creeped out by this) he brought down the traps and showed them to me. (I told him I wanted to see them. This might not have been a good idea in hindsight.) And there they were.

Two dead, ten-inch, fat, RATS. I said to him, those aren't mice and he shook his head and said no, rats. My stomach turned.

He installed another trap and on Saturday morning we caught another. He'll be back Tuesday to check again. I am sure we'll find more because Saturday as Ang and I sat in the living room, I was telling her how quiet it had been and maybe we only have three and they're all gone. But then the clicking and running began, this time over the dining room, farther away from the traps. I think they've caught on and are staying away from the war zone. I wish they'd go back out the hole they came in. (And the fact that they can get through a hole the size of a quarter does not give me any consolation.)

After Ang called the landlord back, we got further action. We have a month-long contract for the rat removal and a permanent contract with the exterminators. They'll check monthly for rats and they'll begin spraying for ants, spiders and roaches too. When I asked Javier about our ant problem, telling him our landlord said that was normal, he shook his head and said no, it wasn't and he'd take care of them, inside and outside, for us. I'm very happy to have this newly formed relationship with Javier. I think he and I will become fast friends!

We also have our handy man and a contractor coming out to "fix" the problem in the attic. Because they're coming in, right? And I figure if these guys got in, others will too. I'm just glad they're not living on the main floor. So yeah, that's the story of the rats. I've seen enough to last me a lifetime. I'm done. Done! (Do you hear that up there!?!?!?) Oh yeah - that's another thing - my first question was, why does our neighborhood have rats? I don't see them running in the streets or anything like that. Guess we're just lucky, and good hosts.