How to not catch a rat.

Some of you may recall our rat.  Not the cute kind of rat that wears a chefs hat and knows how to cook.  But the kind of rat that lives in your kitchen, eats your food and creeps you out just knowing it's around somewhere.  Watching. Waiting.  We tried the humane traps.  Then with no success we moved on to the "snap, yuck" traps.  Nothing.  We thought he was gone.  We got comfortable again.  We left our bananas on the kitchen counter. Vulnerable and alone.  They never saw it coming. We woke up a few mornings ago to see the familiar hole chewed in the side of one of the bananas.  HE was back.  Or he had never left. Shiver.

Whatever.  He was immune to our human made traps.  He was smarter than us.  Obviously.  And he had to prove it once more.  Our dog had to this point been useless.  If the rat had looked like a shoe or smelled like cheese he would not have had a chance.  But it seemed our Westie, Rex,  was oblivious to any rodent moving in on his turf.  But the other night at about 10 pm Rex finally turned into the hunter that would have made his ancestors proud.  He had been digging around the bottom of the cabinets on the island in the kitchen.  Maybe he had found a gold mine of crumbs.

I was upstairs when I heard my husband squeal like a little girl and shouting at the dog.  We all ran to the kitchen to learn that Rex had finally rooted out that rat, chased him across the kitchen and into the family room.  The rat used his smaller size to his advantage and slipped under and inside our large stuffed chair.
We know knew where he was and he was not getting away without a fight.

First my husband handed everyone a large plastic bowl.  Because everyone knows that should be your first arm of defense against a rat.  I guess we were supposed to trap it under the bowl when he came running out from under the chair.  That would have been difficult from on top of the chair I was standing on.  I was not about to put my feet on the floor while there was chance a rat would coming running towards me.

The rat aftermath.  My chair defaced.  Carpet turned over.  

And Rex still sniffing him out after he was long gone.

My husband was now in hunter mode along with the dog.  They both circled the chair wondering how to get the rodent out.  He tipped the chair on it's side.  We could hear the rat scurrying inside the char, under the bottom interfacing.  So only one thing to do.  Cut up my chair.  My husband proceeded to cut the bottom interfacing off my chair.  Sure.  Deface my furniture for the sake of the hunt.

While we were still armed with our plastic popcorn bowls and one kid with a blanket, hubby shook the chair and the rat came running out and under the couch.  Hunter Man then armed himself with the blanket to throw over the rat as my son flushed him out from under the couch with a broom.  Then there was screaming, yelling, squealing as the blanket trap actually worked.  For about 5 seconds.  The rat escaped out of the iron clad blanket plan and ran straight out the doggie door.  Holy Crap.

My house was a wreck and the rat is now living it up pool-side.

Linda