Monday, August 1, 2011

oh old house

we are thankful for this house that shelters us and we love that it's old, but its age and location (in the city) mean we must occasionally fight vermin. yuck. many ancient pipes were never removed when plumbing was updated in the last few decades so there are literally highways for rodents under our streets. earlier this summer we saw a rat on our bird-feeder, but that was outside. the other day i was peacefully reading jane Eyre on the couch and kept hearing scratching in the wall. i told adam, he shined the flashlight into our pocket door opening and an ugly, long, naked tail and fuzzy behind was visible. we called our neighbor to bring his bee bee gun and they each took a turn...and missed that creepy thing (side-note: what is it about bee bee guns that immediately turns grown men into middle schoolers? they enjoyed this failed hunt a little too much).


now we have traps set and our exterminator coming in a couple days, but i keep hearing things. let's just say night float + roaming awful vile rat(s) = very uneasy wife.

i have two vivid memories of my fairly courageous brothers calling my parents as each has lived in old houses at times with fearful voices. i remember abe single-handedly took on his opponent and ended its life with a golf club. tom slept alone in his house on the top bunk with a bat maybe awaiting "ratsputins" evil appearance.

i'm not that brave.

2 comments:

Nicole said...

HAHAHA! those pictures crack me up! but, you having a gross rat roaming does not. praying he finds a new place to live soon :-).

Lauren said...

Pictures = awesome. Rats are not. :( We had mice in our old house, and Matthew loved to hunt them with his blow-dart gun. Ugh, I shiver just thinking about it now. Hope your stowaway is soon relocated or something else less friendly. :)