We have moved to Mississippi, hence my lengthy absence. I have been checking email and facebook via phone, but with the tiny keys and screen, I haven’t done much else online. We finally got internet yesterday evening, so I can tell you all about our Miss-adventures!
The house we are renting is in the process of renovation. Steve had to start work before it was ready, so we were apart for two weeks. We missed each other too much, though, so we decided to move in before the house was completely ready. Monday, we moved most of our stuff. Everything went wrong. A mix up with the Uhaul led to not beginning the moving process until almost 10am, 3 hours past schedule. It was pouring rain during part of the move, but we finally made it out of town. That evening, a massive storm hit that area of Arkansas. I lived in Conway, which is the town right next to Vilonia, the small town that was hit with tornadoes and made national news. My Conway friends said the sirens went off 16 times; that it was crazy. I know power went out for a lot of people, and my own family went without for over 40 hours. We got out just in time! So glad I was not alone in Conway without a car for all of that!
While we didn’t have tornadoes that night in Mississippi, I kept hearing odd noises all night long. We chalked it up to new house and all the rain. However, I kept hearing it, and when the sound of shopping bags on the counter rustling woke me up at 4:30am, I knew it wasn’t the rain I kept hearing! I figured it was a mouse, but wasn’t sure. I crept into the hallway, went to the bathroom, and immediately the noise stopped. I knew then that something was there.
“Steve!” I hissed. He grunted. “Steve! There’s something in the kitchen,” I shook him.
“It’s just the rain,” he moaned.
“No, it’s not! I heard something rummaging through the bags. Listen!”
We listened, but didn’t hear anything. I sighed. “I guess it went back to sleep,” I conceded. We settled back down underneath the covers. Immediately, the rustling noise started again. I poked Steve. “Did you hear that?!”
He bolted upright, grabbed his shotgun, “Stay here!” he commanded. He stomped through house, yelling in case of human intrusion and snarling in case of animal intrusion. I alternated between shaking with laughter and shaking in fear, listening to him growl!
A few minutes later, he came back, seeing nothing. ”Well, I’m awake. Might as well get up,” I said. I started cleaning out the cabinets so I could finish lining the shelves in order to put food away. I opened my upper cabinet to find that the mouse had chewed a hole right through the wall, hopped down to the counter, and had quite a feast.
I had actually finished lining this shelf, which is how I know it happened that night
As I started wiping things down, I heard a scratching noise. I did a wild banshee dance to scare it, then looked sheepishly at the open window when dogs started to bark. Hello, neighbors! When I looked back, not a mouse, but a GIANT GRAY RAT dashed from behind the refrigerator to somewhere behind all the boxes. I had never seen a wild rat before. Needless to say, I did the girlie shriek thing.
Now, I have had nightmares about bugs inhabiting my house since I was a little kid. Tornadoes, bugs, and house fires have been my phobias. I am fine with bugs out in nature–that’s where they belong. But roaches and mice and other critters around the house make me feel filthy; my whole house feels contaminated, and it takes a long time for me to get over that awful dirty feeling. I spent the morning bleaching everything, but it still felt disgusting.
When the contractor came over, I showed him the cabinet and told him what happened. He said it sounded like a field rat looking for some place dry from all the rain we’ve been having. We got FOURTEEN inches the first 3 days we were here! Here is a picture of my backyard on Tuesday:
Since then, we’ve had quite the ordeal with this rat, whom I have named Harry. (Steve didn’t like that name, so I came up with another, Steve-approved name, but it isn’t very nice. So far, I’ve told the G-rated version of the story, but there is a PG-13 version which, while funny, I am not sure I should tell the entire world!) Rat poison hasn’t worked yet. It ate four trays of d-con, one dose of which is supposed to kill in 4-5 days. It’s day 4, and so far, it seems rather healthy. Last night, we worried it would die in the ventilation system and stink the house for weeks. We stayed up all night, playing cat and mouse. . . or maybe in this case rat and mouse? We found every hole and exit and blocked them off, except for one. We set the entire room up so we could get him, but turned out he had a couple more holes we missed. We sealed those up, but then had the problem of him dying in the air conditioning vents again. So tonight, we un-sealed the hole in the cabinet, and set up a little contraption to catch it. We’ll see if it worked in the morning. It’s 1am now, so I am not too hopeful. You should see my house: there are clothes blocking the paths underneath the doors in the hallway, a mattress blocking the entrance to the hallway itself, boxes and bags on every vent, duct tape all over my cabinets, etc. It’s crazy!
The moral of the story: Never move into a house that is being renovated, especially during a mini flood!
This was day one (and day 5). Day two was just as fun.
The exterminator guy gave me a bunch of rat poison, too, but I can’t find it anywhere. The only thing I can think of is that I set it down somewhere, and Harry found it. How is this thing still alive? It’s got the lives of a cat on steroids!
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