an unwelcome visitor

I love visitors, generally speaking. Hosting guests is exciting. Usually when people arrive for a short stay I get to do extra fun stuff. Visit new places, or at least go to some old favorite places. Eat out, play games, laugh out loud, tell stories.

Some visitors, however, are unwelcome no matter when they arrive.

Some examples include:

• giardia
• ticks
• rats
• sweat circles under the arms
• slugs in the garden

I've had experience with each of these types of visitors in my 30 years of life. One, more recently than the others. A year ago when I arrived here on Whidbey Island I often heard stories of the island's most common pest, the rat. I filed these tales away in my mind until they became pertinent.

The stories became pertinent about two days ago when a rat was in Bailey's dog food bag. A few days before, I had heard an unfamiliar sound coming from that direction, but had written it off as a wind gust. Hmmmm. And then I heard it again. And again.

Needless to say, the rat scored the big one when it found the hole in the drywall behind the water heater, and right next to the dog food bag. Three times that night (starting at 3 am) I had to get up and kick the food bag so the rat would run back into the wall. Freaky.

A full day later, the wall is patched, there are a number cubes of rat poison under the house in the crawl space, and I haven't seen the unwelcome guest since.

This picture is of another rat that we found poisoned in the pump house. Relative of the unwelcome visitor, I'm sure.

Random Info
On rodent poison: "To kill mice apply 1 to 2 blocks of poison in high traffic area. For rats use 6 to 23 blocks."

Wow! Does that rat advice seem a little intense? 23 blocks of poison? That has some scary implications about rats, doesn't it? Am I the only one that is disturbed by this?