Trapped Like a Rat

Sometimes insomnia can be a good thing.

Not that its’ very late, or that I expect overly much more trouble falling asleep, once I settle on how to solve a hairy problem I’ve found myself with.

Short gray hair, for the most part, with a white belly to be precise.

It seems the cat’s vigil over the entrance has finally paid off, although less than he was expecting.  I’ve suspected for some time, in no small part because of the cat’s nightly stalking of my drier that there was a mouse living here, so I’ve had a trap set for a week or so now.  Something tripped it fairly early, and either went scrambling or sent the cat on a wild goose chase (which he is on again now, it sounds like), sending dirt across my entry way.   Now, I’ve finally had some better results.

I heard a snap, and the cat’s surprised mews, so I grabbed the flashlight and took a look.  There was a small (for what it is) rat, a field rat if I’m not greatly mistaken, laying there next to my drier against the wall.  Almost cute, if I don’t remember the small noises that could have been something outside or something in the walls.  It was right behind a small brush thing that has been here longer than I have (which, as it turns out, was what the cat was just now stalking).  It was laying on its side, with the mouse trap upside down, but obviously not dead.  Dying perhaps, but I doubted it.  At first I thought it was trapped by its whiskers, then by its paw.  As it turns out, it wasn’t trapped at all, apart from the sentinel cat and me with the light show.

So I stared at it.  And thought.  I shut the cat and dog in my room - it might be a rat, but I’m still a sap, and I’d rather not clean up any blood they might leave - and looked around for a bucket.  Not being successful, I grabbed the shed keys and glanced back at the thing.  It had moved a bit, not much, but enough that it was obvious that it would be long gone by the time I got back from the shed.

Then it dawned on me: I had been lazy!  That cat litter bucket above the drier was empty, and I simply hadn’t taken care of it yet - score one for the lazy pack rat (pun fully intended).  So I set that down and used the long brush thing that I use for cleaning cob webs and got him in the cat litter bucket.

And now it’s sitting here under my feet, and I have no clue what I should do with it.

Poison?  I have bleach, that would certainly kill it, but that seems rather cruel.  It’s big and fast enough that I’m not sure of a quick clean kill if I try to use a blade or blunt object to end it quickly.  It can chew its way out once it thinks its safe to do so, so I can’t starve it.  And if I let it go it’ll come right back.  Freezing it sounds good and humane, but I’m not sure I like the idea of having either the rat or the cat litter bucket in the freezer, plus there’s the possibility of it chewing out before it got too cold.  Perhaps if I put ice in the bucket though... then cleaned it well...

Hmm...

I think I’ll wait and think about it for a bit longer.  Could always toss it on the sun porch with the cat.  Indiana would love that!

But tomorrow, I’m getting rat traps, these little ones aren’t going to cut it.


POST BLOG NOTE:  As it turns out, bleach is a very vast killer.  What I elected to do was throw in some ice to slow it down, then add bleach.  I know, it's weird caring about the suffering of a rat, but like I said, I'm a sap.  Either way, he died quickly, and I'll dispose of it in the morning.