Borrowing the title from Sudev's comment on my facebook status message describing my late night adventures with the sweaky visitor.
It was a tiring Sunday night, almost about to hit midnight, when I spotted a small rat in my house. It was the second such sighting, the first was almost a year ago and had been effectively dealt with. Now this tiny creature was fast and made its way into the kitchen. Fortunately, it could not find its way onto or into any of the cabinets and so plonked itself under the refrigerator. Yours truly went into the war zone armed with a jhaadu amidst screams from the biwi! Shut the door behind me but did not bolt it, and that turned out to be a mistake. The nasty fella found its way through the small gap that remained and found its way into my bedroom. Holy thy me!
Searched all humanly reachable places and came to the conclusion that it was hiding below the bed. Now the newer types of beds have these cases to put your linen, etc below the plank and are closed from the sides. That leaves no room for mortals like me to search for absconding rats! Resigning to fate, dozed off to sleep.
Sometime around 2.30AM, biwi shoves her elbow into a sleepy me with a notice that the rat has been spotted trudging its way back into the kitchen. I would'nt have woken up faster even if a Ferrari F1 car was found at my door! I again armed myself with the jhaadu and re-entered the battlefield, ordering biwi to bolt the door behind me.
Now the modus operandi was simple. Get the rat out of the kitchen window. Could not risk getting it to take any other route. This chap was unfortunately too young to be able to reach the window sill which was about a couple of feet and a half from the floor. All it could do was run around from one end to the other and back under the fridge. There was no escape. Now, the fella was too swift to get him onto the dust pan and out of the window. So I used a small bucket and made it lie on its side at one end of the kitchen. Nearer the fridge, I kept an empty polythene carrybag (Thank you Spencer's) fully inflated! Used the jhaadu to get the fella out from under the fridge and go around the kitchen. It was going around from one end to the other for almost five minutes before it went into the trap! It found its way into the carrybag! In a jiffy, I was at the carrybag and lifted it off the floor with the rat in it and off it went out of the window!
The light weight of the bag would ensure a smooth landing for the rat onto the tarmac, whence he could continue his midnight adventures - two floors below me! And thus ended the Saga of the Midnight Rat...
It was a tiring Sunday night, almost about to hit midnight, when I spotted a small rat in my house. It was the second such sighting, the first was almost a year ago and had been effectively dealt with. Now this tiny creature was fast and made its way into the kitchen. Fortunately, it could not find its way onto or into any of the cabinets and so plonked itself under the refrigerator. Yours truly went into the war zone armed with a jhaadu amidst screams from the biwi! Shut the door behind me but did not bolt it, and that turned out to be a mistake. The nasty fella found its way through the small gap that remained and found its way into my bedroom. Holy thy me!
Searched all humanly reachable places and came to the conclusion that it was hiding below the bed. Now the newer types of beds have these cases to put your linen, etc below the plank and are closed from the sides. That leaves no room for mortals like me to search for absconding rats! Resigning to fate, dozed off to sleep.
Sometime around 2.30AM, biwi shoves her elbow into a sleepy me with a notice that the rat has been spotted trudging its way back into the kitchen. I would'nt have woken up faster even if a Ferrari F1 car was found at my door! I again armed myself with the jhaadu and re-entered the battlefield, ordering biwi to bolt the door behind me.
Now the modus operandi was simple. Get the rat out of the kitchen window. Could not risk getting it to take any other route. This chap was unfortunately too young to be able to reach the window sill which was about a couple of feet and a half from the floor. All it could do was run around from one end to the other and back under the fridge. There was no escape. Now, the fella was too swift to get him onto the dust pan and out of the window. So I used a small bucket and made it lie on its side at one end of the kitchen. Nearer the fridge, I kept an empty polythene carrybag (Thank you Spencer's) fully inflated! Used the jhaadu to get the fella out from under the fridge and go around the kitchen. It was going around from one end to the other for almost five minutes before it went into the trap! It found its way into the carrybag! In a jiffy, I was at the carrybag and lifted it off the floor with the rat in it and off it went out of the window!
The light weight of the bag would ensure a smooth landing for the rat onto the tarmac, whence he could continue his midnight adventures - two floors below me! And thus ended the Saga of the Midnight Rat...
