This is a funny story...so even though it happened about two weeks ago...I still want to share. Behind our house there is a small wooded area and a large overflow parking lot...behind the lot there is a large section of woods and rocky portions of a mountain. In the evenings on warm nights, we sleep with our front and back door open to assist with airflow through the house and to keep things cool. One door has an enclosed porch on the second floor with no steps to get downstairs and the other has stairs...it is the door we use daily....neither door has a screen...all these details are important for the story..you will see later :-)
Well.. I was sleeping on the bed downstairs because I hadn't been feeling well and didn't want to keep Steven awake. Around 1:30 I woke up as something fell over on the counter in the kitchen...or at least that is what I thought. It just sounded like something falling to me. I got up and went into the kitchen..but didn't see anything. I was feeling better so I headed upstairs to our bedroom to go back to sleep. Steven was still sleeping and I tried not to wake him. Just as I was about to fall asleep again...I heard the same sound again. I asked Steven to get up and check because I hadn't seen anything falling the first time...but something obviously did. He went downstairs and Lady was in the kitchen this time looking up at the counter. He said it was just a water bottle that fell over...maybe from the wind blowing through the door or something....then came back and tried to go back to sleep. The next thing you know, we hear the same sound over and over and over again..it sounds like the spices or cups are falling off the shelve on the counter. Steven gets up and says "I fear that it may be a mouse," so he goes downstairs to take a look...yep...the spices are all on the counter and floor and Lady is looking around the kitchen again. He says..."No big deal..I have about 5 traps...we can catch him and then get back to sleep." Sounded good to me...so he set the traps and came back upstairs. Just as it go quiet again...we heard this "wap" and Steven started to chuckle. It was the sound of the trap going off. He walked downstairs to investigate...no mouse in the trap but it was set off. He reset it and came back upstairs and mumbled something about the fact that he hoped it wasn't something bigger like a rat....not a fun thought for me. Next thing you know..we hear this "thud." It sounded like to trap actually hit something this time...Steven hurried downstairs and I followed along....nothing in the trap. Steven says.. "I think it is a rat and we are going to have to catch him or he is going to keep us up all night and these traps just aren't big enough." At this point it is like 2:30 in the morning. We do have people that live below us as well..later we found out that were hiking and camping that week...probably a good thing. Anyway...we turn on all the lights and Steven starts looking for it...the thing runs under the refrigerator...but not before Steven gets a glimpse of it. Yep...it is definitely a pack rat he states. Oh boy I think..this is going to be interesting. So he pulls the fridge away from the wall a little and the thing is trapped under and only has one way to run out. I am standing there with a bowl and a broom...we have the trashcan ready to tip on it on the floor and Lady by my side to chase it out the door if/when it runs out. Then Steven decides that isn't going to work because he thinks I am going to run across the room when I see how big this thing is...he was probably right on that. So he goes outside to get a stick and begins to sharpen it (he really wanted to shoot the thing but I thought it would mess something up in the house we don't own). I informed him that he should just tape the knife to the stick and use it that way....sure enough..we end up with a piece of drift wood with a small pocket knife taped on as a "dagger." Steven pokes it under the fridge and stabs the rat and says "errgg" at the same time to signify his accomplishment. At first he doesn't think the rat is dead so he asks me to tip the fridge so he can get it out. I went around the front and just as I started to tip it..I looked down and saw the tail...about 4 inches long and as big around as my little finger...I squealed and ran to the other side of the room saying.."it's gross and big" Steven decided the rat was dead and pulled him out and sent him flying into the woods. (Oh...I did see the thing as he carried it out the door and it was a really big rat) Needless to say...we don't sleep with that back door open anymore at night. He just ran up the steps and into the house while we were sleeping. Over the course of the next few days...I washed all the dishes and counter tops the rat could have possibly walked/run across and we shared our funny story with friends the whole week. Hope it wasn't too "long-winded" but I didn't want to leave out any details...details make a story better...right?? Thanks for reading!
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