So - to begin - Buddie (our Jack Russell) has been REALLY obsessed with something in our laundry closet the past few weeks. It's been very strange. He's always back there sniffing around and staring at the wall... blah blah blah. So - on Saturday night - Chris and I got home from running errands (we got a rug runner from Homegoods and bath towels for our new master bathroom! yay! that's for another post...) Buddie didn't even come and greet us at the front door. "OKAY," Chris says. "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" So Chris goes into the laundry room to find Buddie snooping around the washing machine. Chris decides to take EVERYTHING out (except the washer and dryer of course) and let Buddie get behind it to prove that nothing was there. WELL! Buddie joyfully goes right back to a small corner that we couldn't see very well and sticks his little tiny nose in a nicely chewed through hole in the wall! WHAT! So Chris gets the flashlight and peeks in and finds ALL SORTS of stuff in the hole. Some of my chewed up clothing that they could have ONLY GOTTEN from our laundry basket was in there. Now - what TOTALLY grosses me out is that I have had about 10-15 pieces of clothing come out of our dryer ALL chewed up with holes in them since about the week after Christmas. We blamed the dryer at first, then started blaming the dogs (because it was ONLY my clothes), then when we started keeping the dogs away from our laundry it was still happening. I NEVER thought it could be what it was. So - anyway - Chris goes to get the TRAP that is big enough to kill a small child and sets it up in the laundry closet - next to the chewed up hole. He closes the closet up and stuffs towels and other stuff underneath the closet SO NOTHING could get out of there - UNFORTUNATELY nothing could get back in either! UGH!
So we go to relax on the couch and lo and behold - Buddie begins to go NUTS in the office (same room as the laundry closet). Chris jumps up and tells me to STAY PUT on the couch. He goes in there and shuts the door and then yells at me to come stuff something underneath the office door and hold it closed. Well - Buddie and Chris were in the office for about 20 minutes. All I heard were a LOT of gasps from Chris and a LOT of "UGH"s from Chris and a LOT of scraping of Buddie's nails on the floor and barking from him, too. I also hear our lovely broom being SLAMMED against ALL SORTS of stuff that I'm sure are all broken now. (I haven't spent enough time in the office since then to even notice.)
So - about the time I hear some quietness, the office door opens about 1/2 an inch and OUT comes the RAT in all of its 8 inch tail glory - it runs across my foot - and RUNS into our bathroom. OH. MY. GOSH. If there was ever a time that I thought I may be actually harming Parker because of my condition - that was it. I have NEVER freaked out as much as I was at that moment. Chris and Buddie run into the bathroom and stuff something under the door and after about 5 minutes - Chris swears there is no rat in there. So - out come Chris and Buddie and Buddie RUNS back into the office. They go at it again then Buddie chases the rat OUT of the office and into - YES - our BEDROOM! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chris and Buddie run in the bedroom, close the door, stuff a towel underneath it and a few minutes later, Chris asks me how important our picture frame with our engagement photo in it is to me. I TOLD HIM "TO HELL WITH THE STUPID FRAME - KILL THE STUPID RAT!"........ THAT IS SO OBVIOUSLY ON MY NIGHT STAND WHICH MEANS IT'S SO OBVIOUSLY ABOUT 2 FEET AWAY FROM WHERE I REST MY SWEET LITTLE HEAD EVERY NIGHT - BY THE WAY! So I hear a SLAM BAM then Buddie freaking out then Chris freaking out... this lasted about 3 minutes... just slamming and bamming and barking and yells from Chris. Then.... QUIET.
NOTHING.
NO SOUND.
NO BARKING.
NO YELLING.
I was sure for about 2 seconds that this rat had eaten my dog and my husband. Then - Chris speaks up finally and announces that our intruder has been killed by our sweet little precious dog, Buddie! UGH! Actually - his exact words were "I think Buddie bit the poop out of him!" Literally - Buddie bit the stupid thing so hard that his poop was all squeezed out of him... GROSS!
So - Chris comes out and tries to calm me down - he packs up the intruder - and cleans up the mess he made and deeps cleans everything the rat touched with sanitizer. After he was sure I had totally calmed down, Chris decides it's time for a shower for him and Buddie. They have been working VERY hard and I am convinced that Buddie has invisible rat guts all over him. So - into the bathroom Buddie and Chris go - and I call my mom at midnight to wake her up and tell her everything I have just been through.
Well - about 30 minutes later - Chris comes out of the bathroom with the broom and a bag with a very large grey-ish black-ish creature in it. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently, the rat that WAS in the bathroom was hiding underneath his towel which was hanging on our shower curtain rod. OKAY - did you know that a rat could CLIMB a shower curtain! YUCK! So Chris goes to take his towel off of the shower curtain rod and DOWN COMES THE RAT IN ALL IT'S GLORY AND NEARLY FALLS ON CHRIS. Now - how is this for a husband who has totally admitted that he is scared to death of these huge creatures. He knew I would freak out again if I knew there was another - so while I was on the phone - Chris snuck out of the bathroom, got the broom and a bag and went back in. With Buddie's help they cornered the stupid thing in a corner after about 20 minutes of trying to quietly kill the stupid thing in the shower (THIS RAT COULD CLIMB UP ANYTHING BY THE WAY!) they get it to where Chris could fit his ginormous foot and he kills the rat by kicking it and the broom against the wall. GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, Saturday night, beginning at 12:30 a.m. we begin to deep clean the house and pack up anything and everything to find out where else these guys could be coming from. Well - of course the only other place we find that they could be coming in is in MY CLOTHES CLOSET! Eww! There were all sorts of rat droppings on (YES ON) my clothes and at the bottom of my closet where a little opening in the wall is - are some more pieces of my clothing that the little creatures could have only gotten from our laundry basket and TAKEN through the walls in the house and into the bottom of my closet to chew lots of holes in. EEEEEEK!
So - Sunday - Chris stayed home all afternoon and night and sealed up any part of any wall in the house that is bigger than the size of a quarter (which is apparently all a huge rat needs to fit through a wall) and we felt PRETTY good that they were out . Buddie stays on patrol all day and all night - this poor dog is exhausted. But he hasn't freaked out at any particular spot... but he's been very good about checking every room in the house about every 10 or so minutes to make sure no one is inside.
EXCEPT for this morning. Buddie seems SURE that there was something in or behind my dresser. I left Chris to pull out the dresser and all my drawers out from the dresser and I went to work - PRAYING that it is NOT what I think it is.
So - I very well may be moving in with my sister in Cumming for the next 2 months. I have sworn to Chris that if we actually SEE another one of these creatures or find ANY MORE droppings from them INSIDE, then I am SO out of there. He can stay there by himself until our house in Cumming is done. But there is NO WAY I am peacefully co-existing with rats INSIDE my home.
Anyway - I DO NOT have any pictures to share as I did my best to NOT look at any carcass or anything related to the creatures. However, I will post of picture of our sweet little Buddie who was SO brave and SO good to "do away with" these very much so UNWANTED guests in our home. Just imagine Buddie saying, "DON'T MESS WITH ME!" You can see it right?
3 comments:
Hillary, I had a rodent infestation last spring and TOTALLY know how you feel. I did not want to stay in my apartment for even a second after I discovered my little "friends!" Needless to say, I moved out this summer! Good luck & I hope you stay giant rat free.
Hahaha - eeeeeeekkkkkk!
I still think Buddie might be sad that his "friends" are gone. I bet he & Jack used to play with them when y'all were at work all day! ;) And you know you're welcome at our house, but all your belongings will be searched before you come inside my house, just in case "they" find a way to move with you - eww!
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