Dirty Rat Bastard!

See that big ol' fat rat on the far left? His cousin is my new enemy....Rattus Norvegicus or, Norway Rat, is the current plague o'er this house. Same damn thing happened last year about this time. This time the little bastard is coming in via the hose for the dryer vent. The hose runs down into the crawl space and then outside. I figured that it had chewed it's was through under the house, crawled up and chewed it's way out once inside. Last night I just happened to be in the kitchen and looked out the window only to see the huge rat in the flesh just outside. I opened the back door which is off of the kitchen and saw perfect little rat prints in the snow leading to and from a gigantic hole in the ground. Today my mission was to destroy said hole and find out where he's been hiding. I went outside armed with my drill and flash light and set to work. I took the outside vent off and peeked inside. Apparently the hose had come loose and was just lying on the ground making it that much easier for the rat to climb on inside. Then I had to stick my arm in to the hole for the vent that was just big enough for me to reach in up to my elbow and retrieved the hose. I put everything back together and now I'm hoping this will be the end. I taped up the holes that I could see on the hose inside and set out some uber sticky traps. Maybe I'll be able to sleep tonight!

Last year another rat climbed where the pipes to the kitchen sink run in. After several baited traps were foiled, our cat, Elwood, came to the rescue and took care of it in no time. Elwood ran away last year around Mother's Day and Illinois, our current cat, hasn't seen the latest rat yet. If all else fails I'll borrow the neighbors two cats. Surely with 3 cats in the house that rat won't have a chance. We'll just have to wait and see...