Couldn't these rats have picked a different house to raid???
Well friends it turns out our sweet boy Duke has been doing us a good turn by peeing all over the house. He knew something we didn’t. Somewhere along the way of us not living in the house full time, some rats had taken refuge in between the floorboards and drywall ceiling of the garage. We can’t be sure if they moved in because of all the rain and cold, or if they’re just dirty, shitty opportunistic filthy critters. Duke has been peeing to let the rats know that they may not come INSIDE the house. They can stay in between the floor joists, and drywall ceiling where we store our sports equipment, but they better think twice before coming in where he, and his two brothers live. So here we are hardwood floorboards warped from dog urine, one dead rat that somehow got caught in the kitchen wall and died, and no idea how many others are wandering through the floor joists of my house.
The entire thing grosses me out. Especially the dead one.
It makes me wonder how on earth my grade school best friend could have had a rat as a pet? I had a hamster, but she had flowing fur, and a cute little face. Rats are NOT cute, or fluffy. This summer we had three fall into our brand new spa, and got sucked into the filter. I was completely freaked out. Removing dead rats from any part of my property is not a good time for me, so I leave it to Yannick to manage. With as much as rats disgust me you would think I would have been way more careful with where I bought houses. Yet I managed to purchase two homes that lend themselves to natural rat habitats. In Toronto we’re on a ravine, and here in California we’re in the Santa Monica mountains, both rat havens. It’s impossible to avoid running into them, and even harder to keep them out of spas, and garages.
One of my girlfriends had a serious rat infestation a few years back. No matter what she did she couldn’t get rid of them, which is my worry since we all know how they have short pregnancies, and mate often, giving birth to six in a litter. How insane would that be if they’ve been making an entire village in my floorboards for months?? How will we ever know how many there are? My girlfriend couldn’t believe how many she had. The crazy, unbelievable thing about my girlfriend’s rat problem was, unbeknownst to her was her then husband was not only cheating on her, he also had a drug problem that he was keeping hidden from her. In tandem with her rat issue, and not being able to get rid of them, she discovered all this other stuff about her husband, her lover, her partner. Then a strange thing happened, she kicked her husband to the curb, and within days her rat problem was no longer. Just. Like. That. The rats were gone. Turns out she had a king rat, in the form of her husband. Once she was rid of him, the rat army left as well. Which has got me thinking, do our rats represent something that I don’t know about??? And if so, what? And do I even want to know???
I hope my rat issue is just an occupation of convenience, and that there is nothing else tied to them moving in. I also wish I could share with Duke how incredibly guilty I feel for yelling at him even once, when all he was trying to do was keep the rats out of the house. What a good dog he is, as it turns out. Now as he recovers from his ACL knee surgery I wonder if the rats will attempt to move on in, since the boxers wouldn’t dream of urinating all over their home. Hopefully the exterminators we’ve hired will make quick work of trapping, and ridding our house of these disgusting critters. I’ll keep you posted on my rat issue, but for now, I need to get back to my patient.
