Rats!

...literally.

Just before Thanksgiving, Kevin and I discovered that we had a rat (or perhaps rats) in the garage. EWWWW!!

We made this little discovery when our brand new garage door opener (thanks Don & Janis!) wouldn't work. When Eric came over to repair the wiring, he said that it had been chewed through. Well, it was a pretty safe bet that it wasn't either of us ... or Slippers ... or Daisy, so we began looking for other evidence. We didn't have to look far. Right there, in the corner ... tufts of one of our summertime music-in-the-park blankets. Then, we noticed the picnic backpack strap had been chewed. What's this? Oh ... the tassle from my overnight bag. Rats! Great - just what every home could do without. Unfortunately, though, it's not uncommon for our area. There are many, many avocado and citrus trees in the area and they are a magnet for rodents. (As much as I love the avocados and citrus, I could definitely do without the rodents!)

To rid ourselves of the pest (or pests), we decided on poison pellets well out of reach of the animals. Kevin set out trays of bait and, sure enough, about two weeks or so later, we smelled evidence that the little bugger (or buggers) had met an untimely demise. Good riddance!

...except...

The last laugh is on us. To add injury to insult, the Sunday before Christmas, I noticed a leak under my car. Hmmmm. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's to the mechanic's we go. It seems that our rat had a hankering for meal of rubber hoses and exhaust. That ding-dang thing nibbled it's way through a perfectly good rubber hose, which caused this not to work ... then that not to work ... and then, once at the mechanic's shop, the battery decided it was done. The end result? Oh a mere $620.00 car repair bill three days before Christmas, thank-you-very-much!

...it's a good thing that critter is dead, or I'd go out and wring his little neck myself!