Last night I spent two hours hunting a big rat in the bedroom. Earlier in the day one of our cats was running around with a baby rat so I didn't think anything of it as they often bring in presents. It is like a kid showing off coming to show you what they have done.
Last night I knew something wasn't quite right though as I had two cats stalking something that was underneath the bed. I had a look and there was nothing, but a few tell tale signs of droppings. Not many, but enough to let me know we had something that wasn't welcome. I am not a fan of rats at the best of times and one in the house is just a big no no. I am not sure how he got in or where it came from and it wasn't staying. The last time we had something like this was a bat which bit my daughter.
I gathered my son in law and we armed ourselves with a broom each we slowly moved the bed. I made sure the cats stayed in the room as we had shut the door. Still nothing was visible and I moved it a bit more and a huge rat the size of a shoe jumped off the back of the headboard and ran and disappeared behind some furniture.
Rats are not stupid and I knew it was going to take a little time to catch this one.My son in law is not very manly and was not keen to help which was fairly obvious as I am sure I heard a scream when he saw it. His idea was to grab one of the cats and throw the cat in the vicinity of the rat. I have tried that tactic before and it doesn't work. The cat is good for letting you know where the rat is as you just have to look at their ears.The whole episode reminded me of this classic video that I saw a few years ago. if you haven'rt seen it here it is and try not to laugh too much.
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It took just on two hours last night to bring the chase to an end and we had basically removed every piece of furniture out of the room. Most of the clothes and shoes from one of the cupboards had to be stripped out as well as it kept moving around dodging the swinging brooms. We eventually tossed the cats out as they were more of a hindrance than a help and were worried we would connect a pussy with a swinging broom.
The funny bit was yet to come though as I managed to connect the rat with the broom and it flew through the air hitting my son in law on the side of the head. He screamed like a huge baby and went running and I honestly couldn't contain myself any longer as I was happy the hunt was over and it was a shot in a million to land it on him.