Sunday 25 September 2011

Day 274- Rat!


30th August, Chilling!

O diary, the house has been ransacked! If we didn't know better, we would have thought a giant creature came and stomped through the house. From the droppings, Mama told me it was a rat. Maybe two. Right after she said that, we both gave a loud yelp and clung to each other, looking for a high place to stand. We were both trembling with fear and I felt sick in my stomach.


Looking at the devastation around the house, mainly just the ground floor, the rat must have been a huge one. Lion size even. In the living room, he managed to topple Mama's stack of embroidery and shifted the low table . He must have knocked over the food cover first before dragging the table, overturning it . Weirdly, the food on that table was left untouched. OM joked that the rat must have been enraged when he saw that the food was terrible, so he went on this crazy rampage . I didn't think that was funny. I was frightened out of my wits and worried to death! The kitchen was an even bigger mess but the rat also did not touch Kivachi's platter or Sindhi's persimmons.


But all our greens were gone. Not a single chilli or lady's finger was left for us, except for some stalks. He even ate every one of our cucumbers. We found two half eaten potatoes which he obviously did not enjoy. This must be the first vegan rat we have had the pleasure of meeting. Mama and I refused to go into the kitchen till OM checked and made sure that no rat was found. We were fretting so loudly out on the porch that Sindhi came over to see if someone had been murdered!


When she heard what happened, Sindhi went home and returned with a tray of purple brinjals. Take these, she said, they are not green so the rat won't want them. Mama was so touched that she gave Sindhi a  tight embrace, nearly choking her. Sindhi then passed us a head of cabbage which was obviously more than a week old and was beginning to brown. I looked at Mama and she looked at me and I was just thinking of saying something polite like we could use it for curry when Sindhi quickly explained that it was for the Rat! Green, see? That means rat's, she said, you have to give it something or it may start eating your green sari, lady. Only Sindhi giggled at her own joke. Mama and I both thought Sindhi could be right.


So we left the baskets of vegetables back in the kitchen and we  cleared up the mess. Mama put citronella scented cotton balls and a hundred moth balls all over the house. There were at least 10 traps laid too. 

Now, we wait....

4th September

Just a quick note, Diary, to let you know that the rat was caught this morning. The citronella balls worked only for one night. The rat came back the day after and ate more green vegetables that Mama had replaced. He did not touch the brinjals but he also did not want the cabbage. A very crafty rat, he sidestepped all the traps. Mama finally called the rat catchers who taped our traps down . Now you know why our traps did not work! The rat was caught after that. 

I did not dare look but I am very sure it was lion size. 

58 comments:

rosanna said...

OMG... first the wasps and now a lion sized rat ?! I'm shuddering.
I wonder if it had any tummy ache after its feast with your veggies: rats are tough creatures but I truly hate them.
I send you a big hug to give you back your courage, Rosanna

Saying this cos I'm far far aways, I'd climb on a book shelf if I knew that a big rat if around.

Unknown said...

i can't help but grin at this post, it's...really funny XD

rats freak me out. a lion-sized one???

psst btw, you joining the challenge or not!??!? i've already started!

http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/imagiantblog-challenge.html

Drora's minimundo said...

I didn't know rats like green vegetables. You delighted and enlighted me. Thanks for this cute story. Hugs, Drora

Rosamargarita said...

Una rata del tamaño de un león! vaya susto y además vegetariana? Lo importante es que acabaste con ella.
Un abrazo

carmen said...

siempre hay que tener trampas para ratas dispuesta! por eso me compré yo una el otro día en la feria de Barcelona...

Daydreamer said...

OH,Sans! How HORRIFYING! I have had ENCOUNTERS with Rats.... both in my Farm girl days AND in more recent times when I lived in my former house.... it was rural and the Rats came in for the Winter.... SHUDDERS.... They were too big for my cat to attack.... but I had a HEROIC Dog who would go for the kill...... still it gives me the HORRORS to remember....!
I am SO sad that you have had to deal with these Monsters in your Tribal House! This is Violation of a serious nature! I hope you will find a lasting Solution! And I hope you are able to restore everything to the Beautiful Serene Retreat that it was BEFORE THE RAT!

Kikka N said...

A Lion Sized Rat, WOW!
I can only say one word:
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"!
Hugs
Kikka

Ara said...

how freaky!! I would have been like you and lived on the porch until the thing was found!!! I can't imagine the shivers you felt when you found out what it was! Lion size or not...eeek! glad everything is back to normal now!! hugs,ara

Flora said...

In these days, the mice are all the rage: someone sends them away from the kitchen, and those who build for them whole houses (and dedicated books!)
As the World Turns?!
Potatoes chewed, they make one shiver: less realism Sans, please (when it comes to mice) ;-)
Mini hugs, Flora

Maria Ireland said...

What a great story lol. I enjoyed it very much. Your fruit and veg are wonderful. Hugs Maria

Katrina said...

A lion sizet RAT... huuuuuu!
I don´t like that. But thanks for shearing the story. Hugs Kati

The Old Maid said...

I have to say it first - the music is sooooo right to the story. Got me scared more than this rat, LOL! ;)
Actually I watched a story about dog sized rats some time ago, luckily for us they still live on only one island near the States. But they really are huge!

Susanne said...

Horrifying, Sans, especially for someone who had to live in a summerhouse during the winther because of rats undermining her house. Huuuhh, I am glad you got rid of those lions. Great pictures!
Love, Susanne

Norma Bennett said...

A chilling tale indeed! I'm not surprised tho that he ate the cucumbers after the chillis to cool the fire in his belly.

Wonderful pics, fabulous food.

onbeingaminimum said...

I love your tales. They are my bedtime story!

Dark Squirrel Victoria said...

Ugh rats! Glad it was trapped.

Now to get order back :)

Hugs,
Victoria

Margriet said...

ieeee....I don't like rats!!! (except the ones in the movie Ratatouille ;-))
But the story and photos are wonderful!

sylvia said...

The story and pictures are wonderful again!

And yes, we looking very much forward to the visit of Mercedes and Rosanna.
I shall make a lot of pictures so you can see

Big hug, Sylvia

Kathy said...

RATS!!!!!!!! I don't care if they are big or little I don't want around of rats! I love your pictures.

Piikko said...

Yelp! I'm standing on the chair!
Lion sized rat!!! So scary! Though I haven't see many rats in my life. Well, only in a pet shops.(?)
Sans, I♥your story and photos!
Hugs, piikko

Ana Anselmo said...

I am so afraid of rats, Sans!!!!!!!!!!! Just panic and real terror, they are horrible, I´m afraid I can´t help you...to find the rats LOL

Ascension said...

Me alegro de enterarme que ya no hay ratas.
No veas que estropicio jejeje
Me vuelven a encantar los primeros planos que has hecho.
Leer el diario es como esperar cada noche a leer un nuevo trocito de cuento.
besitos ascension

Eliana said...

Rats are terrible. When they decide they want a new home do not care about innocent traps! I'm glad you hired professionals to get rid of the little intruders! :)

BiWuBär said...

Have to keep it short... I'm writing this standing on the chair... for safety reasons - a lion-sized rat... *iiiiiieeeeeekkkkk* You really give me the shivers - the reason could either be the rat with the extraordinary taste or your outstanding storytelling even when it comes to freaking rat stories. Going to decide that when I got down from my chair...

Greetings
Birgit

Sans! said...

Rosanna, this house is kind of jinxed that way. Not sure if you remember but its very 1st attack was by the termites.I posted about it and that was before I did anything to the house. Then the wasps and the last, a rat.

Fafa saw the rat. It was a big one. Fai removed it. All this happened when I was at work so I didn't see the rat.

Most of the description about what the rat did is true story. It only ate the green vegetables but not the rest. I think its because the green vegetables might have been made with food stuff or used natural animal glue. The rat didn't even shift any of Kiva and Cindy's food. Weird right?? But the weirdest thing was the food cover. I had food-like minis under the food cover which you could not see if the food cover was not lifted. When I found the house, the food cover was off on the floor, the food on the floor too but not touched. How did it know there was "food" there???!

Sans! said...

Cindy, I wonder if I can submit this termite/wasps/rat house for the challenge? :)

It has taken me 1year and almost 3 months to finish this house. How can I do another one by December this year? LOL.

I don't like working with a timeline. Especially when it comes to my minis. :)

cockerina said...

Oh! what a great tragedy, to lose all the great harvest of the previous day! all vegetables, what a pity! I hate rats, they are so intrusive and dirty and ... hairy !!!!!!!!!!
Sindhi your friend, was so sympathetic and generous to bring eggplant!
magnificent job, Sans! As always, the story on your diary, is so compelling, sometimes it seems really! :))
kisses, Caterina

Virginia isabel said...

RATA!!!! a mi me paso una por la cabeza un dia mientras cenaba. deje de comer ese dia.
Sans, los muebles si los pinte yo y el del labavo lo hice.
besujis!!!!

Plushpussycat said...

Great story and images, Sans! Don't forget you owe me an email--remember, Sans? te he! :-)

JDayMinis said...

What a fabulous tale, or should I say rat's tale... I never thought rats were that bad until our cat brought one in our house and it was lost in a cupboard, I found were it had been in with my lovely antique laces, chewing them up. Once a small rat was brought into our bedroom at night as a wonderful gift from our cat and this was alive as well. Did you know they can jump about six feet! It was balancing on the top of my dresser and kept looking at me as a place to land. Thanks for the fun, everything looks fabulous even with such a happening. Hugs, Jean

Unknown said...

I'm late again, but so happy I finally came by, to continue your story. It's like reading Charles Dickens the way he was first published, in chapters! That clever rat-I always want to admire how tenacious they are, but having one in your own house makes that impossible. When I spent a summer in the state of Maine I lived in a cabin that had no glass windows or doors-it was meant to be lived in only in the summer. And a field mouse, not, thankfully, a rat, came to live with me. At first I had the typical city girl animal lover attitude-oh how cute look at that tiny little thing. The mouse, however, did not appreciate my admiration. He would give me a "are you kidding, I'm here to torture you" look and procede to torture me. He would swing on the window curtains over my sleeping face, he would knaw at my comb, he would poop in my sneakers. I had to hide all my snacks away, sealing them in tins, but he would still find something to nibble and shred. By the end of the summer he had me sitting in the corner with a tennis racket. He knew I was a bleeding heart and wouldn't trap him. He knew that when I was a kid I made my dad take a mouse we found in the basement sink 5 miles to freedom in a grassy field. (Mice must talk). He knew, And he won.

Sans! said...

Drora, that rat did gnaw the edges of my acrylic boxes (beads) off . He also took apart many paper boxes . He had been visiting the table where I placed this tribal house, hiding in the cabinets of the desk, eating away my containers of materials/ beads etc.

I now think it must have been him the night I was making a new post at my dining table and I heard rustling in the desk. Humpphhhh!

Sans! said...

O sí, Rosam. Me alegro de que lo ha capturado. Lo siento por los amantes de la rata! jejeje

Sans! said...

Carmen, ¿puedes creerlo? Me dijeron que muy pocas personas venden las trampas tradicionales de rata en Singapur. Mi amigo de Malasia tuvo que prestar su que compró en Malasia!

Sans! said...

Bets, if you read my next post, you will see that there was no permanent Solution for the Rollas' house.

I was just telling Carmen how it was impossible to find a traditional rat trap in Singapore. I went to a really old hardware shop and was told that people stopped selling those kind of traps long ago!

They sell mainly the kind that trap by glue. If the rat is big however, you can only use the traditional rat trap , the one with a cage.

I was told that rats are very clever and that they will not go near objects that look like a trap but Singapore rats won't be able to recognise a cage trap since they have never seen one :).

Sans! said...

Teehee Kikka, good to see you!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious indeed!

Or maybe
SuperCATlifRATilisticEXPELidocious :)

Maybe I should have cats again :)

Sans! said...

Ara, I was walking in tip toes! Imagine walking where he had been..eeeeeeeeeew. The boxes he had chewed are still in the suitcase I put them in. I feel squeamish holding these boxes. I wonder if the rat exterminators will be willing to sort out my bead boxes for me..hehe

Sans! said...

OMG, isn't that so true, Flora? A mouse mansion with 100+ rooms all for them? What are they thinking? teehee :)

Poor rat. He might have come to my tribal house and go..ooooooh, I finally found my home. How shabby, how old, how wonderful!

And how short lived! :(

Well he did live there for about a week. How long is that in rat days? Must go and ask Karina. :)

Sans! said...

Thank you Maria Ireland! :)

Sans! said...

Neither do I , Kati. Rats must be one of the critters I fear the most.*shivers

Sans! said...

Ewa, dog sized mice and they live in the States? Mickey and Minnie? Teehee :)

One of the scariest thoughts is imagining a rat coming out from the toilet bowl when you are using it..happened to my sister, TWICE!

Sans! said...

Susanne, don't bring your dolls' houses to your summerhouse. As you can see now, those rats under your summerhouse may be permanent tenants of those houses in winter.

Sans! said...

hahahahahaha, Norma.

Cucumber to cool the fire in its belly? But you forgot he also ate the green chillis!

Sans! said...

Janice, surely this one is too horrifying for bedtime! :)

Sans! said...

Victoria, the rat was pretty neat. Maybe he was tiptoeing around the house too. I didn't have much to clean up. It was worse when I put cotton balls of citronella and moth balls in the house. Now that was messy!

Sans! said...

Margriet, why do they make rats so cute in cartoons when they are not and then they make cats the mean ones ?

Sans! said...

Sylviaaaaaaaaaaa! yes yes yes. I want loads of pictures !

Come visit me one day then you can go see Mercedes :)

Sans! said...

Thank you Kathy O-O. I don't like them big or small either, not even if they are hamsters. But squirrels ok :).

Sans! said...

Piiko , before I live in this house, I have NEVER encountered rats at all! I thought the snakes in my house would have eaten all of them up . I guess they are friends now.

Sans! said...

Ana, 1st snakes, now rats. My nieces and nephew have stopped coming to my house. :( Poor unloved me! :)

Sans! said...

Ascensión, que siempre me hacen sonreír. Me gustaría hacer la rata se comporta como un caballo y un carro de la unidad de calabaza, como la suya (Yolanda). Por lo menos la rata puede tener alguna utilidad. Yo incluso le permitió dormir en la casa si es que los ratones transporte:). LOL. Usted puede decir lo mucho que me encanta tu trabajo?

abrazos y besos

Sans! said...

Eliana, I have to confess I was a little stingy and reluctant to hire the professionals thinking that rat catching is a simple task. But now, I am very happy that the professionals did it.

Sans! said...

hahahahaha, Birgit, I am rolling off my chair here................eeeeeks! Rat on floor! Phew! Only my black bra.

Seriously, I once mistook my black bra which I carelessly left on the bathroom floor for a rat. I ran out screaming. I wasn't wearing my glasses of course and you can imagine the looks I got.

So don't make me laugh so hard again, Birgit or I may just meet a real rat when I next fall off the chair.

Sans! said...

Catetrina, again , it was a real rat story...hehehe. The next time, you think something is real, it probably is :).

Sans! said...

Que hizo la obra de arte en los muebles y de la cuenca, Virginia? USTED es increíble!

Sans! said...

I owe you an email, a post and 100 kisses, Jennifer :).

Ok, will write you soon . Until then you can bet your bottom dollar I will be lurking near your blog :). Your frogs are hilarious .

Sans! said...

Wow, Jean, your cat gift you live rats?? When I had cats, only one would bring the rat/ mouse into the house. Xerxes always "played" it to death, literally and then left the carcass in some corner till we found it. Not pleasant at all but how do you teach a cat ? An old cat to boot.

Antique laces? Shucks! But I know exactly how you feel because more than anything else, (even my own safety) I was worried that the rat would destroy the work from all my friends. Many of them cannot be replaced.

Sans! said...

Amy, you are scaring me. If mice talk, then they will surely know that I am the one who have spared their brethren no mercy. Although I did not do the deed myself (like you) , surely they must know who is the one ordering the execution. They always blame the mistress of the house anyway. Hopefully they can't tell the difference between dolls and human and blame "Mama" Rolla instead of me. I must find a way of disseminating the story of "Rat" to the rat community. :) Rat whisperer anyone? *looking at Amy ..teehee

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