Early in the week, I opened the garage door to toss something into the recycling bin. It was late. I was tired. As I tossed the empty milk carton and missed the bin, I thought I saw a dark little figure scurry across the garage floor.
No. Say it isn't a mouse. Or worse - a rat. Please. Did I really see anything? Maybe not. It's late. I'm tired. I'm sure I was just imagining it. (This is denial at it's best, folks)
We went on with our lives and the busy week ahead of us. On Saturday, Drew organized and cleaned the garage while I took the kids to swimming lessons. When we came home, Drew hollered, "DON'T OPEN THE GARAGE DOOR."
Hmm. That's curious. Ok, we won't. We went in through the back door and tried to follow the sound of Drew's voice. He was in the garage. He found it! The R.O.U.S! (Rodent Of Unusual Size for any of you who haven't seen Princess Bride). He had it trapped in a net.
But what was it? It wasn't a rat. It wasn't a mouse. It was long, but fat. It looked like a cross between a chipmunk and a squirrel, only definitely NOT cute and no bushy tail. And it had stripes on it's back. Eeuuuwww, I'm grossing out just remembering it.
I looked more closely at the contraption Drew had used to catch it. It was a net from the kid's "Elefun" game. He hooked it to Megan's toy broom handle. There's no way I'm letting the kids play with those toys again. Nope. That's just gross.
Unfortunately, the trusty Elefun net had a hole in it and the thing escaped. It was very exciting for the kids. James pulled out his animal encyclopedia and found the page about rodents. His encyclopedia failed to give us a picture of this animal that we found. So, I'm calling it a mutt rat.
Now we have a family of five with a baby on the way and a weird critter living in the garage. Call me crazy, but I don't want to share our house with any critters. (Any tips on catching critters and what to do with them once they're caught?)
9 comments:
Try looking up groud squirrels, Natalie. I know we have those here. They like to make lots of holes in our yard. Squirrels=cute, ground squirrel=pest. Sorry you found something so unpleasant. I laughed so hard at Drew's "contraption." Ha, ha, ha. Too bad about the kids loosing some fun toys though. That's a bummer.
I loved the visual of an Elefun net strapped to a toy broom. So funny! Nothing is worse than knowing something is living in your house. Are you guys going to hire someone to come catch it? Creatures really creep me out and I can't handle it. Once I went to drop something off at a friends house and they were busy trying to capture a garden snake that had found it's way into their HOUSE!!!! I think I would move. Good luck!
Well Natalie, I have no knowledge to contribute here, but I was laughing too at Drew's creativity. That would kind of take the "fun" out of Elefun though. Too gross.
And Kell, I'm impressed with your knowledge. There are somethings we wish we'd never had to learn about, hugh?
Good luck Natalie in your catching pursuits!
Sorry, can't help you out with this one. But that was clever of Drew to come up with such a contraption. Good luck with the mutt rat.
ALl I can say is EWWWWWWWWW
Hey Natalie. Hawaii is a great place to live but it had its down sides, and one of the down sides was that we had huge rats living in our home with us! I'm not happy to admit it, but I just happened to be the rat catcher in our apartment of 6 girls. The way I used to catch these huge rats was I would have someone try to corner the rat and then I would let it run into un empty garbage can.Thats how we would catch them. Yuck. Good luck though! That is no fun!
It freaks me out a little that it had stripes down it's back? I've never seen anything like that. I'm so sorry. We have had mice and dave ties a piece of string on a trap and it works. Or peanut butter I've heard works too although our mice licked the pb off. I really hope you guys can catch this creature. I would probably call someone for help if you don't get it soon. GOOD LUCK!
(I can't comment on Heather's Site without commenting on yours. That would be favoritism).
We have been lucky that the neighborhood cats have kept us rodent free here in Layton. When we were in that house on 9th South, I believe we trapped (and killed) about 7 mice.
If you see any mor ROUSs, just listen for a popping sound and roll them on top of the spurt of flaming swamp gas.
When we lived in Iowa, in that block of swiss cheese, we shared our lovely abode with many rascally critters: squirrels, racoons, mice, bats, and one pot smoking undergrad in the basement. But that's a different kind of pest....
I say call a professional. "RodentsRUs" or whatever they have in Minnesota. It will be worth every penny.
H
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