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There’s A Rat In The House

At about 9.00 last night, just as the kids were drifting off to sleep I heard my husband call me from downstairs.

“Jess, Jess I need you!”

As is my habit, I refused to go downstairs. I had (still have) a cold, I was tired and grumpy. It was a little unusual in that he continued to call for me. “Jess, I really do need you!”

The yelling roused the kids, this isn’t a house where we yell for one another. Finally I yelled down and asked what the ruckus was. My husband explained that a rat had run in through the dog door and was somewhere between the kitchen, dining and family room. I did what any Mommy Blogger worth her salt would do. I updated my twitter status:

A Rat Just Ran into the house

and then I realized that the rat needed to die.

get the gun

So, maybe I overreacted a smidge. My husband needed a second set of hands, and since ours is a galley style kitchen with only two entries, we’d kill the rat ourselves. Right?

Yeah, right.

I pulled on a pair of hot pink rain boots just in case the rat thought of biting my ankles. I joined my husband downstairs and the kids stood on the balcony looking down on us, delighting in their delayed bedtimes.

I gingerly stepped into the laundry room and retrieved a broom. My husband grabbed a hockey stick. We stood there, armed with our sticks we stifled a giggle. Then I failed.

I was absolutely unable to keep a straight face. My husband was opening kitchen cabinets and getting ready for a rat to run out. With each successive opening I got more giggly. It was too much for me.

I sat with my broom and kept an eye on the kitchen doors while my husband ran to the drug store for some rat traps. We set a few of them in strategic spots in the kitchen where the dog couldn’t get them and went upstairs to bed.

Once tucked into our bed I had a horrible realization. Hamsters fit into rat traps. I love my son, and I certainly don’t want to traumatize the boy, but this could solve many problems.

I’ll be getting up early each day, because if the hamster finds it’s way into the trap, well? It’ll have to be our secret.

10 thoughts on “There’s A Rat In The House”

  1. How weird.. we, too had a melee worthy of twittering earlier today. The cat flew into the house with a bird in her mouth. The second cat, fat tail, shackles up, raced after her. I yelled at my husband to “GO GET THE YUCKY THING THE CAT BROUGHT IN”. He reluctantly went after the cats. When I got into the bedroom, my husband was on his knees protecting the DEAD bird from the two cats. He yelled, “Either get me a paper towel or get these cats out of here”. The cats sat ready to pounce on the poor dead bird. I plucked the cats up by their necks and he disposed of the bird.
    In retrospect, it’s not that exciting.
    Our hamster was already eaten by the cats months ago so I don’t need to worry about that.
    good luck

  2. Ugh. To both. I am of the “they are both rodents, what’s the difference camp”. All caused by my mother jumping on a chair to avoid a mouse when I was a kid.
    *shiver*

  3. We found a mouse under our fridge one day and I reacted in a very similar way. The poor thing had run into our house (with 3 cats) and couldn’t get back out… so he basically had been starving and was just about toast when we found him…
    Poor thing still scared the hell out of me despite being on it’s last legs.

    Haha, thanks for sharing.

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