There's a Critter in the House

It's 4:30 in the morning when my wife got up to see why the cats were making a noise. She stopped to put some wood in the stove as the cats were all sleeping in various locations. Once she was back in bed the noise continued so she got up again this time turning on the living room lights. She thought the noise sounded like water leaking but that is not possible from behind the couch. She moved the couch a bit and discovered a pack rat. She got me up at that point. I went for the broom and we moved the couch. The rat scampered along the wall behind a plant and past the closed door to the office. Once passed the door it disappeared under the love seat. After trying to get it out by sliding a stick under the seat, we tipped the love seat over. The rat then headed back to the couch, but this time in the open. I stopped it with a good wack from the broom and a couple more to make sure. The cats not wanting to be in the way stayed safely on our bed, on top of the love seat or headed to the other end of the house. Thankfully there is no video recording of this event.

We've had this critter in the crawl space under the house for about six weeks. It rattled through and round the furnace pipes. I left the access open for about a week hoping the dogs or cats would do fulfil their responsibilities in rodent and intruder control. I had caught the beast in a trap before by the hind end. It escaped by pulling itself through a hole under the electrical panel before I could find a stick. That hole will soon be gone as we continue our winter schedule of renovating. No noise tonight so hopefully he was a single rat.

Oh geeze. I guess Barriere has pack rats, smiling. We don't have rats, but we have darn field mice. Lots of them, see the cats with them all the time and I have them in the chicken coops. The cats hang out at the chickens' coups, inside and outside. Chickens don't mind cats. I think the mice are pretty much all under control, as the traps I have set for the past few days have not had any in them. I have been very diligent this fall with about 8 traps and checking and clearing every day. It seems to have worked. I remember when we moved up from the coast, Daughter said there were no rats in the Okanagan, just mice, not like the coast, where there was lots of rats, ich. I am very happy you got the rat. I can remember the sound of rats in the walls in some places that I have lived in my younger years, and I don't like that. Now have a wonderful sleep the next few nights. Happy to hear you got it. Have an awesome day, too, CynthiaM.

Pack rat you say?
Perhaps you should train it to retrieve things from neighboring homes. Could help with the cost of renovations -lol

I've said it before and I will say it again..... I despise rodents in general and pack rats in particular! So glad you dispatched it, a victory for all human kind!

Yikes! Thank goodness your kitties were not harmed by this intruder.

Pack Rats...destructive annoying things.  We have a few now and then in the barn.  I used to live trap them and take them on a road trip to let them go.  Then one turned on me when I let it go, so that was the end of that...

The last pack rat we had our GSD made very short but proud work of dispatching that little monster. The cat wouldn't have stood a chance, the dog on the other hand   They can be really quick. Almost like playing pinball, only not as fun.

Glad to hear you prevailed  

Farmer Bob wrote:  Then one turned on me when I let it go, so that was the end of that...

whoa..now that is something i hadn't even considered. I used to help my dogs hunt for them; turning over crates, lifting pallets, till the little buggers would scurry, then the dogs would get it
Doubtful there was only one though Rosewood....

Glad you got it, they are stinky things!
Our cat takes on the young ones, but the full grown ones are to big. Haven't seen any here.....yet.

All quiet under the house so far, but there is some noise in the ceiling, an area where the cats can't reach. I'll put some traps up there. Two of our cats are good mousers, but a pack rat is too big for them. The third cat is a good mouser if the mouse passes within reaching distance.