What a rotten weekend...
Yesterday I managed to go to ACC (San Francisco Animal Care & Control) to give the cats some loving for a little while, so I can say that the day wasn't a total waste. I had a headache when I got there, it got worse, and I left after visiting only three cats. Those cats were very glad to have my company, even if I felt (and am still feeling) too beaten down and worthless to feel much joy, the way cats usually bring me joy.
I set the humane 'Hav-A-Heart' trap next to the refrigerator where the rat's been hanging out and went to bed around 9:00 pm, after doing all-day PC maintenance (virus/adware scans, file backup, defragmenting, etc). Fucker started making noises so I kept going out to look to see if the trap was touched. After a couple hours of this, I stuffed the earplugs in my ears and went to sleep. Got up around 1:00 am to see that the rat had been outside to check out the trap, decided against getting caught, and left a pile of big rat turds a few inches from the trap which I'd baited with peanut butter. Fucker. I know it's a rat now 'cause those turds are too big to be mice turds. So I moved shit around, and also noted that the beast had been chewing all the pink fiberglass insulation under the fridge, it was scattered around... what's it doing, making a nest? Well, I went back to bed, and soon the creature which I shall refer to as "it" had come into my bedroom to seek other shelter, in my closet where it first appeared 48 hours ago. I could hear it rattling underneath the closet door but didn't see it when I turned on the flashlight from my bed. It was making noises in the wall heater (probably where it entered my apartment to begin with, since I think the pipes in the heater lead under the foundation to the building, I'm in the basement, plenty of space for a rat to come up inside my room from there) and I got up to look around some more. Saw the fucker had chewed a four-inch length of wire going to my red Xmas lights I have along my wall (mood lighting, little red bulbs I've had there for ten years or more). Great. Now I have to go out and buy a new string of Xmas lights. Glad he didn't eat the speaker wire and all the other cables I've got running through there. Guess it just ate that wire to make room to squeeze under the closet door. So now I must make a point of leaving the door ajar, so it doesn't feel the need to destroy more wiring. I gave up again, stuck the earplugs in my throbbing ear canals and went to bed again. A shitty night's bit of sleep, with dreams about a hateful security guard who didn't want to let me pass and he pissed all over the floor and my belongings, and about my house being invaded by GIANT snails and slugs that grew legs and ran really fast across the walls and the ceiling, multiplying in every room (actually my place does have a real slug problem, they come out in my kitchen at night in the dark, I find them when I turn on the light and I either flush them down the toilet or release them out in back of the building... I don't like slugs but at least they're quiet and relatively easy to deal with as opposed to rodents).
Got up today, went to hardware store, was lucky they agreed to exchange my useless humane trap for some more effective traps (Cole Fox Hardware in SF, great place to shop, I gotta say that). They special ordered me another string of Xmas lights since they don't stock those in the summertime, $16 for the lights and $19 for some more traps. Now I am getting serious, and laying down GLUE TRAPS. Most cruel form of trap there is. That's right, I am a heartless fucker, that rat is destroying my stuff, keeping me awake at night, shitting in my kitchen and contaminating my food, and I'm going to kill its worthless ass. I gave the bastard a chance with my humane trap and it was too smart to fall for that. Well, let's see how it likes to be stuck to a glue board, dying a slow, suffering, terror-stricken death. Best possible outcome at this point is this rat gets out of my house and stays out, so it doesn't have to suffer and die and I don't have to feel like a mean, cruel, selfish animal hater. I know where it is moving and I can tell what its path and hangout spots are, from the sounds I've heard and the stuff I've seen knocked over repeatedly in my kitchen. I've got six glue traps to lay down and I am going to put them where they are going to get that bastard. And when I find that poor, struggling varmint stuck on the glue trap, I'm taking it out back and crushing its brains in with a brick. And once I get rid of this one, I'm leaving the remaining glue traps under the heater and stove and fridge, for any other rats that will wander into my home.
If anyone is reading this, please leave a comment about what a hateful, cruel selfish human I am for using glue traps. I tried the humane design. I didn't try the old-fashioned spring traps (any smart rat knows enough to avoid those). I didn't try poison (poison works but then the rat goes and dies somewhere inside your wall and you've got a new problem: stinking rotting corpse smell in your house, and flies). And I didn't try the electric traps, I guess if the glue trap doesn't get it then I'll have to try that. But I think the glue will do it's dirty business and get this fucker. I hope.
And then I hope I can get me some peace... even if it means someone has to kill me in order to find it.
Yesterday I managed to go to ACC (San Francisco Animal Care & Control) to give the cats some loving for a little while, so I can say that the day wasn't a total waste. I had a headache when I got there, it got worse, and I left after visiting only three cats. Those cats were very glad to have my company, even if I felt (and am still feeling) too beaten down and worthless to feel much joy, the way cats usually bring me joy.
I set the humane 'Hav-A-Heart' trap next to the refrigerator where the rat's been hanging out and went to bed around 9:00 pm, after doing all-day PC maintenance (virus/adware scans, file backup, defragmenting, etc). Fucker started making noises so I kept going out to look to see if the trap was touched. After a couple hours of this, I stuffed the earplugs in my ears and went to sleep. Got up around 1:00 am to see that the rat had been outside to check out the trap, decided against getting caught, and left a pile of big rat turds a few inches from the trap which I'd baited with peanut butter. Fucker. I know it's a rat now 'cause those turds are too big to be mice turds. So I moved shit around, and also noted that the beast had been chewing all the pink fiberglass insulation under the fridge, it was scattered around... what's it doing, making a nest? Well, I went back to bed, and soon the creature which I shall refer to as "it" had come into my bedroom to seek other shelter, in my closet where it first appeared 48 hours ago. I could hear it rattling underneath the closet door but didn't see it when I turned on the flashlight from my bed. It was making noises in the wall heater (probably where it entered my apartment to begin with, since I think the pipes in the heater lead under the foundation to the building, I'm in the basement, plenty of space for a rat to come up inside my room from there) and I got up to look around some more. Saw the fucker had chewed a four-inch length of wire going to my red Xmas lights I have along my wall (mood lighting, little red bulbs I've had there for ten years or more). Great. Now I have to go out and buy a new string of Xmas lights. Glad he didn't eat the speaker wire and all the other cables I've got running through there. Guess it just ate that wire to make room to squeeze under the closet door. So now I must make a point of leaving the door ajar, so it doesn't feel the need to destroy more wiring. I gave up again, stuck the earplugs in my throbbing ear canals and went to bed again. A shitty night's bit of sleep, with dreams about a hateful security guard who didn't want to let me pass and he pissed all over the floor and my belongings, and about my house being invaded by GIANT snails and slugs that grew legs and ran really fast across the walls and the ceiling, multiplying in every room (actually my place does have a real slug problem, they come out in my kitchen at night in the dark, I find them when I turn on the light and I either flush them down the toilet or release them out in back of the building... I don't like slugs but at least they're quiet and relatively easy to deal with as opposed to rodents).
Got up today, went to hardware store, was lucky they agreed to exchange my useless humane trap for some more effective traps (Cole Fox Hardware in SF, great place to shop, I gotta say that). They special ordered me another string of Xmas lights since they don't stock those in the summertime, $16 for the lights and $19 for some more traps. Now I am getting serious, and laying down GLUE TRAPS. Most cruel form of trap there is. That's right, I am a heartless fucker, that rat is destroying my stuff, keeping me awake at night, shitting in my kitchen and contaminating my food, and I'm going to kill its worthless ass. I gave the bastard a chance with my humane trap and it was too smart to fall for that. Well, let's see how it likes to be stuck to a glue board, dying a slow, suffering, terror-stricken death. Best possible outcome at this point is this rat gets out of my house and stays out, so it doesn't have to suffer and die and I don't have to feel like a mean, cruel, selfish animal hater. I know where it is moving and I can tell what its path and hangout spots are, from the sounds I've heard and the stuff I've seen knocked over repeatedly in my kitchen. I've got six glue traps to lay down and I am going to put them where they are going to get that bastard. And when I find that poor, struggling varmint stuck on the glue trap, I'm taking it out back and crushing its brains in with a brick. And once I get rid of this one, I'm leaving the remaining glue traps under the heater and stove and fridge, for any other rats that will wander into my home.
If anyone is reading this, please leave a comment about what a hateful, cruel selfish human I am for using glue traps. I tried the humane design. I didn't try the old-fashioned spring traps (any smart rat knows enough to avoid those). I didn't try poison (poison works but then the rat goes and dies somewhere inside your wall and you've got a new problem: stinking rotting corpse smell in your house, and flies). And I didn't try the electric traps, I guess if the glue trap doesn't get it then I'll have to try that. But I think the glue will do it's dirty business and get this fucker. I hope.
And then I hope I can get me some peace... even if it means someone has to kill me in order to find it.