Rat attack.

[grrltastic]

 We are currently in the awkward position of being rat owners with a feral rat living in the walls behind our kitchen.

The rat absolutely has to go ASAP. It's not acceptable to expose our girls to any diseases a wild rat might bring in to the house. And if someone else has noticed the rat and set out poison, there's always a possibility of one of our cats catching and killing the rat and being exposed to the poison second hand. Also fleas, also property damage, also creepy.

The question is whether or not to do a humane trap/release thing, which Trish is initially inclined toward, or to opt for snap traps, which is my first choice.

Mostly it all falls under the category of "stuff I don't want to deal with because I have other shit to do." But, unfortunately, c'est la vie.

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

No, no, no, you've got the solution all wrong. First you bring in a feral cat to eat the feral rat, then you bring in a feral dog to chase off the feral cat that ate the feral rat, then you bring in a feral tiger to chase off the feral dog that chased off the feral cat that ate the feral rat, then you bring in a feral elephant to stomp on the feral tiger that chased off the feral dog that chased off the feral cat that ate the feral rat.

Then you have a feral elephant problem. Easy.

[grrltastic]

Oh! It's all so clear now! :D

[pinesandmaples]

Feral elephants, man.

[waketosleep]

I don't think rats are big carriers of fleas, but that's only one problem erased in any case. Rats are like mice in that if you trap/release it has to be a loooooooong way away or they'll come back. They're very smart animals. Probably the snap trap is the most efficient choice.

Assuming there's just the one rat.