Monday, December 19, 2005

Oh Rats!


About a month ago I started to hear something trying to to chew it's way through the floor under the dishwasher. Well, our crack property management team sent Pedro to check. He said he didn't see anything in the crawl space and that was that. Then the other day we found some chewed up carpet and a chewed up Christmas decoration. I thought we must have a mouse. So this morning while having breakfast at 6 am with Carol, out comes the varmint from behind the Christmas Tree. It was either a big mouse or a small rat. Now maybe the mice in North Carolina are a little big from eating biscuits. Funny thing though: the critter arrived the same night as Marianne. Well, now we are waiting for the exterminator. Being an old ratter from the Bronx I know how to get rid of these pesky fellows but since we just rent I'll leave it to the pro's. Seeing a rat in the morning will wake you up quicker than a double latte.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aunt Laura says "you can tell if it's a rat by tail." She says that rat tails don't have fur.

She ought to know this because twice she's seen them in her house. Thank God for Philip the Fearless! M-

Anonymous said...

Little rat?? Just the common variety.

Big RAT... Norway (sewer)Rat. We had 'em in the city... as big as our little cat! Nasty vermin too!

Find the hole it came in from! If you have one you've got more!

Stern's poison on toast. They love it! They eat and run for water!

D

Aunt Annie said...

We were blessed with all sorts of vermin in VA--roaches, mice, moles, bats--but at least it was our neighbor Woody who got the rat. The rat was building a nest in Woody's downspout extension. Jeff and Woody thought they'd be smart and tie a plastic trash bag to the end of the downspout to easily catch the rat as he left his new home. What they didn't realize was that it was a very strong rat and when he came running out he pulled the bag right off the downspout. Woody, not to be outsmarted by a rat, went chasing after the moving bag and stepped on it with his foot. Somehow the rat managed to escape the bag altogether but ol' Woody had a pitchfork and quickly brought it right down through the poor rat's neck. Ewww!

Marianne said...

Stinky brought the rat!
;-)
This is nothing! When I was younger we had wild ponies loose in the house!

Babba-Gi said...

Stern's rat poison on white bread. Spreads like peanut butter but it smokes when you spread it. The rats don't always make it outside to die; case in point.

Bronx NYC circa 1964

Put out rat poison
Two days later my Mom comes home and smells a dead rat.
No one else does but Mom has nose like bloodhound. She can smell a gas leak in the next apartment or some pot smoked a week ago.
Sends son to find dead rat along with 15 year old sister.
Sister holds flashlight while son removes grate on vent in ceiling.
Dead rat falls on sister's head.
Sister screams for 20 minutes.
Brother rolling on floor laughing for 20 minutes.

This is a true account of a Bronx Ratter

Anonymous said...

Well you've got in tears again laughing ...."Dead rat falls on sister's head.
Sister screams for 20 minutes.
Brother rolling on floor laughing for 20 minutes."

I love it!!

Anonymous said...

As a kid my folks had a motel and Sterns was the best! Dad would have to get up early every morning to "fish " the dead rats out of the in-ground pool before the customers would show up for an early morning swim. We never had the odor problem you encountered (nor a screeming sister either).

Anonymous said...

I was gonna say it look like a guinea pig, until I looked closely and saw that tail hanging down.

we've had our share of mice out here in sunny CA. And a rat or two, especially when we had a rabbit house outdoors and rats would sneak in and eat the rabbit food.

The thing that really freaks out the females of the family here, though, is possums, which basically look like rats the size of a small dog, with razor teeth.

U.F.

Anonymous said...

U.F.: You make me think of the year we left our "have-a-heart" cage in the backyard cuz of the woodchuck that leveled my new garden. I noticed a "critter" one morning in it from the window. I went back to take a closer look. We looked at eachother and I asked, "just what are you?" Dick had to tell me it was a possum. Scary looking thing! M-