Friday, December 22, 2006
D***** rat! (aka moral dilemma)
Well, I gotta take my rat - sorry - hat off to him - he IS a smart rat. Any normal rat would have just upped sticks and ofted himself by now via whatever route he came in by. Between us (me, the young lady Methelette home for vacation, the electronic rat repeller, the trap and the smartest brains in the known universe-ity) we have the only other exit covered and we have deprived him of food and water. But, this is Basil, superat extraordinaire, the rat that knows no shame. He has quietened down - a lot. But quiet isn't gone. Yet. We seem to have two options left. The tried and tested (locally and under cover of darkness according to neighbourhood gossip) traditional stick and bag technique - courtesy of a man in a suit that should never be allowed out except when covered by cloak of night. Or, the appealingly named (well, to an educational technologist anyway) "electronic solution" - only 39-95, comes in own brown wrapper, no need for embarassing white van outside during procedure "Uses 4 x "C" cell batteries that will kill approximately 12 rats..." with its own "flasing indicator to show rat has been killed"...
Even more EEEK!
Well, I gotta take my rat - sorry - hat off to him - he IS a smart rat. Any normal rat would have just upped sticks and ofted himself by now via whatever route he came in by. Between us (me, the young lady Methelette home for vacation, the electronic rat repeller, the trap and the smartest brains in the known universe-ity) we have the only other exit covered and we have deprived him of food and water. But, this is Basil, superat extraordinaire, the rat that knows no shame. He has quietened down - a lot. But quiet isn't gone. Yet. We seem to have two options left. The tried and tested (locally and under cover of darkness according to neighbourhood gossip) traditional stick and bag technique - courtesy of a man in a suit that should never be allowed out except when covered by cloak of night. Or, the appealingly named (well, to an educational technologist anyway) "electronic solution" - only 39-95, comes in own brown wrapper, no need for embarassing white van outside during procedure "Uses 4 x "C" cell batteries that will kill approximately 12 rats..." with its own "flasing indicator to show rat has been killed"...
Even more EEEK!
Monday, December 11, 2006
Rat-ling my cage
Encouraged by friends at dinner assuring me that Basil was best dealt with by employing traditional measures so when I got home last night I decided to find the trap and lay it. I put peanut butter (as recommended on the box) and placed it by what I figured was the hole in the side of the kitchen cupboard which Basil must be using... Went to bed. Heard no rat like sounds during the night. This morning I woke up and came to see if there was a Basil-no-more. Alas, no rat. But, also - horrors - NO TRAP!!!!! Where is rat? where is trap? What to do next?
A couple of coffees for courage and I poke a broom handle into the hole to test the lie of the land - the trap is there! Cautiously drag it back into sight but the only thing that has been caught in it is a GIANT whisker... eeek!
Repair to Homebase for assistance. Am infomed that the best non-toxic, environmentally friendly solution (aka most expensive item on shelf) is electronic scare device which will make Basil and any nearby buddies leap from their underfloor beds and head screaming for the exit...
Return to house to devise plan which will avoid seeing me switching on device and simultaneously getting crushed in rodent stampede for the door...
Watch this space for further developments as they happen!
Encouraged by friends at dinner assuring me that Basil was best dealt with by employing traditional measures so when I got home last night I decided to find the trap and lay it. I put peanut butter (as recommended on the box) and placed it by what I figured was the hole in the side of the kitchen cupboard which Basil must be using... Went to bed. Heard no rat like sounds during the night. This morning I woke up and came to see if there was a Basil-no-more. Alas, no rat. But, also - horrors - NO TRAP!!!!! Where is rat? where is trap? What to do next?
A couple of coffees for courage and I poke a broom handle into the hole to test the lie of the land - the trap is there! Cautiously drag it back into sight but the only thing that has been caught in it is a GIANT whisker... eeek!
Repair to Homebase for assistance. Am infomed that the best non-toxic, environmentally friendly solution (aka most expensive item on shelf) is electronic scare device which will make Basil and any nearby buddies leap from their underfloor beds and head screaming for the exit...
Return to house to devise plan which will avoid seeing me switching on device and simultaneously getting crushed in rodent stampede for the door...
Watch this space for further developments as they happen!
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Finally,
...back online after several weeks away in the wilderness and a few adventures I'd rather forget followed by a laptop meltdown (possibly the long term effect of too much travelling) which left me voiceless for a couple of weeks until I managed to pick up this basic but operational desktop - now to begin the lengthy process of reloading programmes... sigh.
meantime, somewhere between the kitchen ceiling and the bathroom floorboards Basil the nocturnal rodent seems to have taken up residence - never a quiet moment in this house! More on this as soon as I manage to pin him down ;-)
...back online after several weeks away in the wilderness and a few adventures I'd rather forget followed by a laptop meltdown (possibly the long term effect of too much travelling) which left me voiceless for a couple of weeks until I managed to pick up this basic but operational desktop - now to begin the lengthy process of reloading programmes... sigh.
meantime, somewhere between the kitchen ceiling and the bathroom floorboards Basil the nocturnal rodent seems to have taken up residence - never a quiet moment in this house! More on this as soon as I manage to pin him down ;-)
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