Ratted Out

Continuing the rat saga:

This morning it settled in to rain for several hours. By late morning it was pretty much done and the people building the wall next door got back to work as did others who are doing things around our property (mainly Mordecai, our night guard who has managed to get hired to do several other jobs for us, like planting grass and digging a compost pit among other things – I don’t know when our night guard sleeps except at night when he is supposed to be guarding).

Not long after the rain stopped Osbert came and got James. Turns out a rat had fallen into our compost pit! It was a bigger rat than the babies. Mordecai went into the pit to get it out. James kept telling him to kill it. But Mordecai didn’t want to. Neither did Osbert. But Mordecai was having trouble getting it out of the pit. James got video of the whole thing. It was crazy! Finally, Mordecai managed to lasso it, haul it out of the pit and take it down to the driveway area. They still didn’t want to kill it so James did the honors. *shivers* We got to watch the whole thing on the video James took. *shivers again*

Turns out, it was also a baby and the adults can be 3-4 feet long. *gasp, horror* They are a variety of pack rat. Sigh. So now I have TWO kinds of rat to worry about.

Oh, and there is a snake living in our hedge. So I have to watch for it when I go to hang laundry. Lovely. Snakes really bother me!

Funny story about that, too. Monday nights here they have a ladies Bible study at church. It starts at 5:30PM and is done by 6:30PM. I usually walk there and back. Monday night, Pastor Robert’s wife, Annette, taught (she is the usual teacher). She shared about the many snakes which have been coming into their house. I guess she doesn’t like snakes any better than I do! LOL. So then it was done and I walked home. At home there was a load of laundry on the line and I totally forgot about it until it was completely dark outside. I hurried out to get it, trying to be careful not to step in any of the “land mines” laid in our yard by the neighbor’s dog. Some of the things on the line were socks and I hurried to get it all in before getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Suddenly, something soft and odd feeling landed on top of my foot. I screamed. Then I reached down and felt. It was some of those socks! LOL! Oh, how I laughed at myself! I had snakes on the brain and just thought that was what was on my foot. I heard someone else chuckling at me as well and it was the night guard, Mordecai, sitting in the yard doing something on his cell phone. He thought it was hilarious that I’d lost it so badly over a sock or two.

Addendum: After James read this blog entry, he admitted that he had been pulling my leg. It actually *was* an adult rat. I guess when Osbert saw that I was believing James he started going along with him and telling me about how they carry off large pieces of metal and shoes and things.

Oh and yes the word “gullible” really is written on the ceiling! 😀 And we shall continue to look for the ROUS’s – Rodents Of Unusual Size.