Every work day, when we get home from work, I let Steve and Kat out of their crate and immediately outside. The way I see it, they have been in their crate for eleven hours, so they are probably in need of doing some business outside. Once they are outside, I go to the bedroom to change out of my heels and work clothes into sweatpants, so I can look my best.
Yesterday, the routine was the same. Steve and Kat went outside, I went to change. While changing, I heard a weird noise, so I looked out the French doors of the bedroom. First I looked to the right. I saw what looked like a roof tile on the patio.
Me: (to Other Half) “Oh, it looks like one of the roof tiles from the shed is on the ground. You should go look at –WHAT IN THE WORLD?? GET OUTSIDE!!”
About midsentence, I had looked left and discovered that Steve and Kat had pulled the grill across the patio and almost into the yard. Other Half still had his shoes on, so he went outside. He first tells me to get the pups inside, so I pulled out the old do-you-want-a-treat trick. Steve and Kat eagerly ran inside. I gave them a treat and then went back to changing. I heard Other Half open the sliding glass door and let Steve and Kat back out. Almost immediately I hear him telling me to get them back in the house. I tried the old do-you-want-a-treat trick again, but they weren’t falling for it, so I had to pretend to go get the leashes. They fell for that.
At this point, Other Half comes inside as well. I asked him what is going on outside. He tells me that a rat is inside the grill. I immediately say, “Oh you mean, underneath, with the propane tank?” Other Half informs me that the rat is not located with the propane tank. Now I exclaim, “You mean it’s where the food goes??? YUCK!! You’ve got to do something about it.” He tells me that he is going to do something about it, but he’s going to take off his slacks and dress shoes first.
While he’s changing his clothes, I go on and on about how Wilbur is completely useless if he’s not going to keep our property clear of rodents and how maybe he should stop killing birds and leaving them on the welcome mat and instead kill the rodents and leave them in the neighbors’ yards. Other Half was changing quickly, though I’m sure it wasn’t because he wanted to get away from my ranting.
Once changed, Other Half goes back outside and gets a broom to use to shoo the rat out of the grill. I am standing in the kitchen with the window open so I can keep tabs on the rat shooing. Other Half says, “Okay, he’s out of the grill… oh crap.” The rat had run right from the safety of the grill into the exhaust vent of the oven. About this time, Steve starts going crazy at the cabinets in the kitchen. Also about this time, I start freaking out that a rat is going to be loose in the house. Other Half tells me to turn on the oven exhaust fan, so I do and after a few seconds the rat runs out of the exhaust tube and to the seclusion of under the shed.
At this point, we decided a rat under the shed was good enough and I let Steve and Kat back outside to patrol. For hours afterwards, they would not leave the grill alone, convinced that the rat was still taking up residence inside of it. Finally Other Half opened the top and all doors of the grill and let them fully inspect every inch of it so they could be satisfied that it was empty.
I’m not sure when we will grill again, but I know for sure it will be after a major cleaning and probably involve turning the grill on high and incinerating any gross rat germs.
Note: If you think I might have been freaking out over this rat, you would not want to see what it would be like with a snake. I probably would be living in an apartment now if there had been a snake that close to the house.
