More on the Rats Wars

Rats Wars isn't as grammatically pleasing as Rat Wars, but I like that Rats backwards spells Star.

It's about the only pleasing thing in this situation. I can't have big vermin like this around the house. They're dangerous and dirty on a lot of levels. But they're also cute.

Yes, I admit, I like rats. I used to have a Chinese hooded rat for a pet. We named him Charm. The fact that these rats are brown/gray/reddish (depending on the individual) and wild doesn't distance them sufficiently from my pet for me to think of them as something radically different from Charm. In fact, I suspect they have a lot more in common with domesticated rats than domesticated cats have with wild cats. I think that if they were hand raised they would be easily tame-able, trainable, and would probably make decent pets just like Charm was.

I found Charm in a Hewlett Packard parking lot. What he was doing there, I have no idea. He ran up to me while I was doing a security check (in broad daylight) and climbed up onto my shoe. He was mouse-sized, so I assumed he was someone's pet mouse. I carried him inside, gave him water and part of my lunch, and put up a sign: Found, Domesticated Animal in Parking Lot. Identify to Claim.

No one asked about any animal at all, so my DH (boyfriend at the time) and I kept him. And he was great. He learned a lot of tricks, and enjoyed running freely around our apartment (though we kept him in his cage at night.)

Back to the present. When I saw an adult female bringing her two young over to the dog food bowl, I knew we were in trouble. We clearly had more than one rat. So far I've identified five--Big Red, a large male with a ginger 'hat', Junior, another male, all gray/brown, who is fighting Big Red for the top spot but is too small to pull it off, the adult female which my DH trapped yesterday (sigh-yay) and her young which I've dubbed big sis and little sis. I'm only guessing at this point that the two youngsters are female.

I wish we could let them be, but I know we can't. Their population will explode (again) and will create new entrances into the house. After all the work we had to do to get rid of the indoor group nesting in our house and garage ... no. Not gonna happen just because these guys are pretty neat.

But they are pretty nifty animals, and I have to admit that I enjoy watching them scurry across the porch (even while part of me is screaming Gah! every time they do it) and using their clever little front paws to pick out the best dog food kibble from the bowl. The girl child likes watching them too. "Why do I like watching them so much?" she asked me.

"You're getting in touch with your inner kitty," I told her. "It's fun to watch prey animals." But it's more than that, I know. I didn't think to mention it at the time, or maybe I did. I just have to admire such a successful, determined, clever animal that can steal food right from under the noses of our dogs.

On the other hand, it's not that hard. Our dogs don't chase small things. They protect them.

Yet another one of those times when I really miss my running buddy, Beast.

So we're trying to deal with them. It looks like their main nests are in the lawn, though they clearly have holes under the porch too. When the weather gets nice (I know, I've been saying this forever) the porch really does have to go. And I have to mow that lawn.

Sorry my little ratty neighbors. I hope you have something that'll warn you.

It's Moving Day.

Gah!! The Rat is Right There!

"Gah!  Look at that little $&@#), bold as brass!"  I tried to get the Sea of Unconditional Love's attention without scaring the rat that was feeding from their bowl right under their noses.  "Finn!  Brian!  Get him!"

Brian lifted his head lazily and the rat scampered off.

The girl and I watched the rat scuttle back and forth a couple of more times before we hatched a plan.  We let the Sea of Unconditional Love (our two Great Pyrenees crosses--alas, I miss Beast (he would have been on that rat in a second) inside and I set a trap outside.

And we waited.  And waited.

We're still waiting.  The rat appears to be more interested in other things than collecting dog food, at least for now.

Gah!!

Hopefully there'll be good news tomorrow.  But in the meantime, we have cleared all the rats out from inside the house.  Yay!

Now we just have to eradicate the outdoor nest.

Gah!!

Downstairs Down in the Dumps

We've drawn our lines in the sand. Actually, they're more like blocks of mortar setting in rat tunnel entrances. Assuming we've found all the entrances, I'm anticipating a rat-free house (yay!) for at least a few years. I can finally (re)finish the downstairs without feeling like it's all for nothing. You know, the downstairs I had new floors put in, and repainted with fabulous colors, and remodeled? Yeah, that downstairs, which got ripped apart and run over as we tried to root out the evil yuck that accumulates wherever rats go.

The floor is still gorgeous. It's just hard to notice with the ceiling all torn out.

When we've got a new ceiling up, I'll celebrate by giving the place a good cleaning/decluttering. It will shine once more, oh yes, it will shine. But first, I have to mud all the top edges and repaint where the tape between wall and ceiling ripped down. Ugh.

Of Mice and Millers

We're still dealing with the never-ending vermin project.  Because my computer with online access is downstairs, I don't have much time to post these days amid the muck and yuck even if I wanted to.  But I've had plenty of time to write ...

The tropical plants are all officially indoor plants again.  I'm sure they'll whine and complain--they far prefer real, live sunlight as opposed to the pale stuff that comes in through the windows.  My blood orange is already protesting, and it's only been in a few hours.  But it was shivering out there.  There's really nothing for it.

As if this wasn't enough going on around here to distract me from my real day job of writing fiction, we've had some sunny, dry weather.  For us gardeners, having non-rainy days this time of year is a huge boon.  I've been weeding like a madwoman, and refreshing garden paths with mulch.  The ladybug in the pic loved one particular lavender, a Grosso in the border of my grape arbor.  I moved him to other plants twice, but he kept coming back, so I snipped the wand he'd parked on after taking this pic and left it in the plant.  He seemed happy with that arrangement.

Garden note:  Yes, you can mulch with your leaves, but (and this is a big but) you will be helping garden pests, especially slugs, overwinter right where they can get at your plants.  So.  Don't mulch on top of your perennial crowns.  Evergreens and large shrubs or trees can take a few pests, especially if they're native.  Also feel free to mulch garden paths with leaves (but shred them first with a lawnmower or they'll just blow away.)  If you want to suppress weeds with fallen leaves as mulch and you can't lawnmower them, do what European gardeners do--put down a layer of newspaper or cardboard first, put the leaves on top, and then put your pruned branches on top of the leaves.  Evergreen prunings work best, but if you're in a relatively sheltered area, even a pretty spare deciduous branch can hold those leaves down pretty good.

Orycon 31 is this weekend.  If you're in the Portland, Oregon area and you're interested in genre literature, check us out.  We have media and comic stuff as well, but our focus is books and writing.  We have some great guests this year.  See the Orycon 31 website for more information, including a schedule of events on the programming page.  The convention is right by the Lloyd Center Shopping Mall, so you can have fun at the event and do your holiday shopping too.  Rates are:  $60 for the weekend, $25 for a Friday or a Sunday day pass, and $35 for a Saturday day pass.  Day passes are good until 10am the following day except for Sunday--Orycon shuts down at 4pm.

After OryCon, vermin or no vermin, I will be posting more regularly.  I may even post updates during the event, as I'll have a bit of free time here and there starting Saturday afternoon.

I hope to see some of you there!  Now, back to writing.