Mossy Cottage Knits

Well, I'm with TMK on this one. Rodents and pigeons, GROSS. And if the exterminator says the words, "dogs won't eat this poison - it is too bitter," don't believe him. Vincent did just that. Ate every bit of the rat poison bait put out by the exterminator (not in the house - in the garden. They had taken up residence in the composter.) The cleaning lady came that day and left Vincent out "because he was having fun sniffing around in the garden." I freaked when I saw the telltale green stuff on his beard. Lucky for all of us I was on top of things and I just happened to get home in time. We had to rush him to the vet to get his stomach pumped, and then he had to have Vitamin K shots every day for a while. It was plain awful. And once we had a mouse in the house. It came in on a sofa that we had delivered! And I was just like TMK. Couldn't sleep a wink. And we saw little signs that he had been IN OUR BATHROOM in the night, which is RIGHT NEAR MY BED, and I was SURE HE HAD CRAWLED ALL OVER ME TO GET THERE, TOO. And he would NOT BE CAUGHT in a trap for over a week. Walked right past them and cleaned all the peanut butter off, too. I actually started to like him by the end of it. But not enough to be happy to see his demise. Sorry, Cuzzin Tom and other Buddhists. I have my limits. ;-)

Norma, I wasn't happy about the demise of the Rat, either, but I knew it Had To Be.

Ok, can one of you either come to Texas or send Mr Exterminator? I have a small house mouse that will run across my hand while I am at the computer. Across. My. Freaking. Hand. It runs past the dogs and they don't even move. We've about decided we need to be putting the traps in the middle of the floor since he no longer even slinks around. I keep waiting to find him begging for food at the dinner table with the dogs one day. Ugh.

Ah... the wondrous ingenuity of small woodland creatures. I grew up in a large, old Victorian house, and we had more than one animal visitor that made its way in. Birds, bats, squirrels, field mice, and one larger rat visitor all made acquaintance with our family.

The rat? In my bedroom under a dresser. My dog slept with me at the time, and woke me up by barking her head off. My mother reacted... in ways similar to TMK, while my father watched it stick its head partway out from under the dresser, little black beady eyes shining, and remarked, "It's really neat, isn't it?" Of course, the rat could not stay for further 'how neat is it' observations, and my brother and father used the famous rat-catching tools of fishing net, large pretzel tin, and broomhandle to remove the visitor from the house back into the great outdoors.

Soon afterwards we adopted a cat (who of course had kittens)... and if a mouse showed up - it was dealt with by mother and daughter cat, and after a while, the word was out that rodents were to steer clear of our residence.

So - may I suggest some feline intervention?

No cats, I'm afraid, Sue; just the Useless Dog. Besides the Useless Dog has, over the years, been, er, "encouraged* to chase cats out of the yard and, thus, considers cats to be Things That Should Be Chased, so you can imagine the chaos: Cat chasing rat, dog chasing cat, us chasing dog, rat chasing us--and around and around we go.

I just had a plumber here today, repairing a leaking water line that turned out to have been chewed up by the RODENTS LIVING IN MY REFRIGERATOR! I guess this is why you should clean behind the fridge now and then, so that you will notice that rats have chewed through the back and made nests in the insulation.

Ah, the joys of rural living.

I am anti-poison (just too risky...never know who or what will eat it) but pro-feline. In fact, I may need to get another feline, since mine seems to be totally useless in this regard too, though he is highly photogenic and good for blogging.

I like rats, but only if they're pets. Or characters in Terry Pratchett kids' books.

My mother once had a rat in her house. It would come out, jump on the coffee table, snatch the Hershey Kisses and run. My mom didn't know it was a rat for a while, but thought maybe the landlord's kid was coming in - until she awoke from a nap and saw Mr. Rat in action. Not So Bright Exterminator man came with a great big sticky pad, which he thought was just the thing to catch Mr. Rat - at which point my mom went into even greater hysterics than she had when she first saw Mr. Rat. She said she could just imagine the big huge rat dragging his big huge rat body around the house with the sticky pad attached to his butt. So she moved in with us until Mr. Rat fell for the Hershey's in the Have A Heart trap I had to buy. After she returned home three days later, we discovered that Mr. Rat had been taking the candy into the office, running behind the couch, unwrapping and eating the candy, and escaping through the heating vent's 1/4" wide slats. Who knew - big rat/small vent hole = happy candy eating rat. In the meantime, I had taken Mr. Rat to the local science center and they let me turn him loose in their forest, which they said was populated with "a lot" of other rats. And here I thought it was just full of squirrels. If I were you, I'd superglue the cabinets closed - that 'might' work. (Sorry, TMK)

Ewwww! I would completely freak out if there was a rat in my house. I did live in one with a squirrel in the heating ducts. I would come out at night and run through the house. Creeped me out. I grew up in an old farm house so mice were just a fact. The peanut butter always worked pretty well.

first: if feline intervention cannot happen... then I suggest getting another dog. One who can do his/her job. and teach frankie how to do the job. see.. competition can work.

second.. thanks for the image of cat chasing rat, dog chasing cat, humans chasing dog, rat chasing humans in my head. hahahaha

last: scantily clad? who? TMK or the dog?

Well, I woke up this morning and my last dream was about a RAT in my REFRIGERATOR and it poked a hole in a milk carton. Thanks, you guys. *shudders*

You just need to find a cat with attitude who will slap Frankie until Frankie learns that his mommies should have thought about cat karma while training him to chase kitties in the first place... >wink<
Gramma has a little house mouse. She locks up the bread in the bread box, but makes sure she leaves a few crumbs out for him. She figures if he has easy access to crumbs, he won't shred her breadbox trying to get at it. I think he (or his descendant) has been there for a few years now.

I lived in a log cabin in the woods for about 10 years. There were actually bears in the yard at various times. They were OK. The wood rats were NOT. They were always getting into the cabin roof, thumping their tails and scurrying around. I still shudder when I think of them.

Poor TMK! That would be sooo unsettling! I put spiders & summertime critters outside instead of squashing them, but a rat would totally freak me out.
Once, in my former dwelling, DH (at that time dear boyfriend)opened my apartment windows from the top (no screen), explaining that it would create better circulation, or some such crap. So one evening, upon returning home, this furry thing started zooming around my head, and terrorizing my chicken-s**t cats. It was a BAT. And it wouldn't leave. Or stay still. After begging the thing to leave the way it came, I ended up putting a collander over my head (this thing was fast!!), locking the poor kitties in the bedroom with food & water, & waiting out the storm at DH's apartment. Mr. Bat stayed at Chez Scaredy Cat for 2 days.
DH naturally thought it was a riot.
I married him anyway.

I just love the Little Sister sweater. i bet that'll look fab!

I feel compelled, on Frankie's behalf, to point out that she and her well-bred relatives were not bred to chase ***ugh*** RATS, but to herd cattle. Rodents are completely beneath her, and to ask her to take on this disgusting task is quite QUITE insulting, though it's possible she forgives you for this lapse.

Perhaps a cute little terrier would be interested, but REALLY. RATS. Hmmph. If she feels the need to live somewhere ratless while the problem resolves itself, send her on over to our house, with a little overnight bag. We have a dairy cow named Daisy next door that she can toy with!

this is reminding me of the time we were terrorized by marmuts in germany. giant marmuts who jumped out at you. I thought they were a laugh a riot and I would leave them be.. but some girls are squeamish. I do remember a scotland guide screaming at the top of her lungs when the marmut jumped out of the file cabinet.

good times.

Who knew there were so many people with rodent stories?

DH and I lived in a small town in South Carolina in a house that was very permeable to the outdoors. We had what I thought were mice, coming in through the hole in the mudroom floor and making their nasty little way into the kitchen cabinets. We got in the habit of kicking the cabinet doors a few times before opening them and reaching in to get out the pans. DH put out sticky traps. Our kind, gentle housemate took the first capture, stuck to its trap, out to the country and poured vegetable oil over it to free it (at which point I suspect it was promptly eaten by some carnivore who thought it was a tasty basted rat).

One day I came home early, all stressed out with graduate school and carrying Chinese takeout. I walked into our kitchen and saw a rodent quivering on the sticky trap. I think of myself as a brave, stalwart, independant woman, but it turns out that I have limits, and they involve rodents. I freaked. I called DH and begged him to cancel the class he was supposed to be teaching in five minutes and come Deal With The Rodent. He was unsympathetic. I was reduced to sniveling on the front porch when our neighbor, a retired Michigan policeman, spotted me. Happily, Lou wasn't a big believer in tough independant women and was happy to come dispatch the rodent. He then told me it was not a mouse, but a rat, which brought on a second bout of hysterics.

We resorted to poison. The stupid dog ate it, but lived to tell the tale. Then we got a useful cat.

Melinda

Living in an 1890 farmhouse, there are almost always mice around. (Despite the 5 indoor/outdoor cats!) The first year here, I bought the sticky traps. They were given up when I caught a poor, innocent little toad in one. Yes, my basement is dark and damp, lovely for toads. Toady was unstuck with veg oil, given a wash, profuse apologies, then set free.

A few weeks ago my mother's cat brought a mouse in with him (she didn't know, of course), but alas, this one was not dead. He let it go, where it proceeded to freak out - and freak her out! It got away, never to be seen again. She looked everywhere. Dad came home later that night, so they figure it took off out the door when he came in (it was dark). They left food out and everything, no sign of it. Needless to say that cat was on the "poop list" for quite some time!

I have a pattern posted on my site that is for child hat size 4-6 that requires chunky yarn. It makes a good, quick Dulaan project.

One of my fondest memories is visiting Trafalgar Square in London and feeding the pigeons there. They, being right greedy, flock wherever they think there's food so I think at one point I had triple-decker pigeons all over my head and arms. SO FUN. Somewhere there are tourists with pictures of me enpigeoned.

Neither of my dogs could catch mice until Carmine the cat moved in and showed them how it was done. Between the three of them they're pretty efficient, although the dogs play with the mice before killing them and the cat does the lethal touch of death thing, where the rodent ends up dead but otherwise unmarked. Which just seems backwards, but hey.

I have the same Trafalgar Square pigeon picture from London! As a seven year old I loved it, not so sure what I would think now.
Rats - as a teenager I lived in a house on a pond at the beach, with an unfinished basement. Every winter the rats from the ponds moved into the house. And yes, I do mean plural. My cat would chase them, but they are big and smart and mean! One night one was outside my door upstairs and the cat cornered it. I tried to catch it, but it ran downstairs and dove between the cabinet and the dishwasher. This all happened at 3 in the morning and my mother slept through it all!! However, the rats got her too, they would go in her old car (rusted holes) in the garage and leave presents on her seat. I do not miss that house!
Thanks, I think, for the memories.

When I was growing up, my family had a rustic summer cabin in the mountains. It was built with mouse-proof cupboards, which was a good thing as all the field mice in the forest had a party when we weren't there. One passtime was designing and building a better mousetrap. Once we had a mouse drive with the kids whacking the mice with sticks as they ran past. I think we killed over ten mice that time (and many more got away). Good thing my family isn't given to screaming and fainting. That cabin was also visited several times by a friendly bat who liked the insects attracted by our lights and rested hanging from the rafters before he finally left, and a sparrow hawk who got disoriented when he couldn't get out the closed window. Interesting place. I loved it.

Okay I am late to the party- but I have a pretty epic rat/mice story to tell....

When I was at Div school and living in the student ghetto that is Somerville, MA- I lived in a small cramped apartment with 3 other Div students. Right around November, we noticed noises in the walls. At first my roommates and I thought we were insane, but then food started going missing. We all were like "Huh" and the one morning while discussing our Jewish Studies class, my roommate picked up a box of Capt'n Crunch and the bottom fell out, spilling cereal everywhere. Something had been gnawing on the box.

So we contacted our landlord, the slumlord-in-training, and he did nothing. So I was dispatched with money by my roommates to buy traps. Scores and scores of snap traps. That night we set 20 of them (peanut butter is great for those btw), figuring that would take care of the problem. All night they went off, and in the morning there were 20 dead mice to pick up. No joke.

So we secured all our food. Cleaned the place, borrowed a friend's cat for a weekend and set more traps. The next morning 20 more dead mice.

They nibbled holes through the walls, they ate our coats, my knitting stash, and chewed on the pages of my roommate's Talmund collection (along with several of her Bibles). They showed no mercy.

We trapped, poisoned, brought in cats. It did not end. At night we could hear them scampering in the walls, sometimes they would run over the tops of our bed covers (we all slept on futon mattresses on the floor- remember poor students) with us in it. Every night we trapped, every morning someone had the odious task of picking up all the bodies....

Our landlord did very little. We were left to contend with the mice by ourselves. Then the rats moved in and started EATING the mice. At that point we consulted legal aid, called the exterminator ourselves and stuck our landlord with the bill.

We continued to have on-and off problems with the mice and rats until we all graduated and moved out some seven months later.

I now have my own dog and cat. Nothing that moves escapes this apartment alive. Mice in pet stores are no longer cute to me... all I can think of is how sore my fingers would get from not setting the traps right and having them snap on me.

PS- the snap traps are the best btw- those sticky traps are terrible because the mice are stuck and still alive, and they end up waiting to die.... ugh.

P.S. I second the recommendation of a terrier. I had a scotty once who fancied herself as a mighty hunter and once caught a mouse in my bedroom closet.