Here’s an email I sent to Peggy a few months ago.
Here in south Florida we have rats, lots of rats. Last spring I was having a rat problem. It seems we have rats every spring. They eat the fruit off the citrus trees and swim in the canals and it never gets cold enough to kill off the weak ones. They get in our attics and try to get into kitchens by following the pipes to the sink. Twice I have witnessed rats popping up in the toilet. Once at my next door neighbors house and once in our main bathroom. They come down the vent pipe on the roof because they can smell the water down in the toilet. You should have seen Mark when he found the rat swimming in the toilet. It was straight out of 'Our Gang Comedies'. Picture Buckwheat screaming and running out of the house. I grabbed Marks favorite kitchen tongs because they are really long, and grabbed the rat and ran outside and beat its ugly little head on the pavement until it stopped wiggling.
Here in south Florida we have rats, lots of rats. Last spring I was having a rat problem. It seems we have rats every spring. They eat the fruit off the citrus trees and swim in the canals and it never gets cold enough to kill off the weak ones. They get in our attics and try to get into kitchens by following the pipes to the sink. Twice I have witnessed rats popping up in the toilet. Once at my next door neighbors house and once in our main bathroom. They come down the vent pipe on the roof because they can smell the water down in the toilet. You should have seen Mark when he found the rat swimming in the toilet. It was straight out of 'Our Gang Comedies'. Picture Buckwheat screaming and running out of the house. I grabbed Marks favorite kitchen tongs because they are really long, and grabbed the rat and ran outside and beat its ugly little head on the pavement until it stopped wiggling.
You would think with all the cats here (2 outside, 1 inside) I wouldn't have this problem.
Yuk!! I can handle snakes, spiders, cockroaches and almost any other critter, but rats are my least favorite. Finding a rat in my toilet would definitely make me S**T....PUN INTENDED! Thanks for burning this lovely image in my mind forever....
ReplyDeleteAlan, why don't you just put a metal screen over your vents and caulk around your pipes? Why not practice "catch and release"? That would have been more humane and compassionate then beating its tiny head on the concrete.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Peta Person, I've done all that. As for catch and release, why give them another chance. They'll just come back now that they know how plush my toilet is. When somebody bitten by a rat carrying the plague will the insurance company be so humane and compassionate?
ReplyDeleteEver since my neighbor found a rat swimming in his toilet and actually came over to my house with a huge pair of hedge clippers asking me to kill it for him, I am always cautious about using the rest room, especially in the middle of the night. You never know what may surface when you are sitting there. I find myself double checking before I do my duty. As for the rat, well the last I saw it... it was happily hopping away though the grass to the canal (to continue breeding I'll bet) The one that Alan found in his toilet was probably one of his descendants. hehe
ReplyDeleteAnd I complain about my tiny fieldmice!!! All they are good for is to feed the outside cats and the massasauga rattlesnake that we've seen 2 times in the 27 years we've lived here! When my kids were little I had to use the Hav-a-Heart trap so they could release the mice into the woods... so they could come back again!
ReplyDeleteThat was nice peggy. I'm glad I'm not alone in saving the mice. They are just so cute with their little noses, tiny hands, and innocent little eyes.
ReplyDelete