Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Rats AKA Soft as Mashed Bananas

Oooohkay, I'm here to tell you guys just how idiotic I really am. Our neighborhood is battling a rat problem. The city has put out poison, which leads to dead rats all over the place. Seems our best defense is to keep all openings around our garage blocked off. See, they tend to stay in the alley, not in the streets, back yards, or houses. Thank god, could you see me running around after rats all day? So, they burrow and gnaw their way into the garages on our block, I guess looking for food or someplace warm and dry. Who knows how rats think??
Since this is NOT healthy for any humans, we have been looking into ways to stem the rat tide. We put out glue traps, figuring it wasn't poisonous (don't want our domestic pets getting sick) or messy. I fully expected to come out one morning and find a dead rat on a glue trap. THAT, I can handle all by my lil old self. Use the shovel and dispose of it's dirty little corpse.
What I did NOT expect is what I saw when I got home with Belly today. A tiny little rat, stuck on the glue pad, facing a corner, sitting very still because it's terrified. Belly noticed it, too. It only took me about five seconds to decide there was no way I was throwing the trap with the rat into the trash. So what did I do? Go ahead and laugh now - I used the shovel to help the little thing get out of the trap. As soon as I started trying to free one of it's feet, it started squeaking. It didn't turn and attempt to bite the shovel (which I expected) but instead it just fought harder to try to get out. As I got one little rat foot at a time out of the trap, it stopped fighting so hard, stopped squeaking, and kind of just waited. When the final foot came loose, it shot away through a small hole in the corner.
I threw the trap away. Then Belly asked me if the "mouse" was okay, if it got to go home to it's mom and dad. I said yes.

What kind of lunatic sets rats free? This one, apparently. That thing is damn lucky that I'm running on hormones this week.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not have done that. I am terrified of any and all rodents!!!!!!!

J said...

You are actually very lucky you got it off in one piece. I’ve heard of mice losing feet to glue traps.

Veronica Garcia said...

OH NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! GROSS!!! I could NEVER DO THAT! EVER! I'm terrified of rodents, insects, and BIG DOGS, lol. You, my friend, are a brave woman!

Monique said...

Dude you have cahones! I can't believe you did that! I would have left that house and never looked back!

Wineplz said...

that's why I can't do glue traps...can't handle knowing they're dying of terror, starvation, or suffocation...makes me feel too guilty...so when we had a brief mouse problem when they tore up a field near our house, we did snap-traps. Those didn't seem to deter the little buggers much. What did was when one of my cats caught one of them, killed it, and left it in the middle of our family room as an example. The others moved out shortly after we found the dead body.
Want to rent one of my cats to live in your garage?

Laura Marchant said...

Ok, I would not have been able to throw it away either but there is no way in HELL I would be able to "help" the little guy out. I would be shrieking just as loud as he was.

carrie said...

you need a vacation or something. that is, well, I don't even know what that is. Why don't you just make a little road trip to Ks and I'll make you some nachos and picadillo.