Rats

Saturday, 17 November 2007

After a refreshing 7 am yoga class this morning (and boy were we packed like sardines as lots of people were in town for Bikram's teacher training and were graduating today), I felt renewed and all stretched out. But, I was paranoid about the rat that I saw running around the house this morning. Once Chris woke up, I asked him to throw out the dog food that the little critter had eaten up. I was catching up on the phone with some Seattle friends, and then all of a sudden I hear a "AAAAHHHHH" and a crashing sound of Chris hitting the pavement. He was trying to move the air conditioner unit out of the window and fell off the shed. Now, scraped and bruised, we spent the afternoon fixing the air conditioner (so that we wouldn't have a gaping hole in the window to invite rodents and other lovely creatures into our bedroom!) and going to the hardware store, Wal Mart, and then enjoying a late lunch at the new "mainland-looking" (according to Chris) Safeway.

Going to Safeway was probably the highlight of the day! It may be more expensive than other grocery stores, but it is nice, friendly, and has a beautiful produce department, nut bar, bakery, deli, sushi bar, bank, Starbucks, seating area, plus more! Never thought I'd be so excited about a grocery store!

We picked up a humane rat trap from the Halsalls and got a movie from Blockbuster to enjoy at home. When I got the baby bathtub (which we leave to dry outside on the lanai each night), I noticed that a rat had chewed some of the foam out of it! GROSS! Chris disinfected it immediately, and now we keep the bathtub inside the house. Within half an hour of setting the trap, we caught our first rat outside!

Sunday, 18 November 2007

As Chris worked on hoisting the air conditioner (this time without incident) and fixing the shed in preparation for our new solar water heater to be installed next week, I spent all morning cleaning the lanai, following the trails of rat poop and getting rid of old carpets and junk we've had on the deck. I discovered that rats have been eating up the dog's snacks and dog food, even chewing up Jay's shoes and the particle board from an old shoe rack. Guess they've been feasting for quite some time. I followed the trail of poop to a barbeque. I picked up the bag of charcoal, and a rat came scurrying out! I screamed, and the only thing I could think of doing was running inside the house to vent and complain to my mother. Even though she's thousands of miles away, there's some security in knowing that I can call mom. She told me to get rid of everything out there, and most importantly, get rid of that dog and the dog food. I called Jay to see when he's taking the dog to their new house. But, he has to build a gate first, so hopefully he'll take her this week.

Chris moved a shelf, and out came scurrying another rat, which jumped off the lanai to the hill below...I screamed in disgust! That's the third rat I've seen so far around the house! Even more paranoid now, Chris and I cleaned up everything, put Jay's stuff on the side, and carried many bags of trash upstairs. I talked to Uncle Gary and Auntie Jane about it. He said that yeah, there are rats everywhere on our hill. They chew on his car tires. Once, he even had one coming up the pipes in the bathroom, so they had to plug it up with a screen. We should probably go buy some steel wool and plug up any holes in the house. I do NOT want rodents in our house!

We went to dinner with the Halsalls at Big City Diner tonight. Sarah, one of the servers who knows us as regulars there, treated us to a yummy brownie sundae. (Guess Chase didn't have to request that one tonight...She read our minds!). On the car ride back, Chase went from super fussy to smiling and laughing once we were back at the house. Then, when we left their house and got back to ours, he was super fussy again. He seems to have moved his fussy period of 7-8 pm to now 10:30 - 11:30 pm. He was inconsolable at that late hour again. He's been pretty consistent this week, but we haven't figured out why. We've noticed that he definitely wants mommy when he's fussy, as he calms down immediately when I hold him, versus daddy.

Still paranoid about those rats, I had Chris set the trap again....and lo and behold, we caught another rat near the barbeque. We need about ten more traps! Chris is all about the humane trap and releasing them elsewhere. Personally, I just want them gone! I could do without rats pitter-pattering and squealing in a cage outside my window all day long.