cat and mouse...er, rat

The room next to mine is currently serving as storage for the buckets and buckets of dried mealie (corn) that my family harvested this fall. Unfortunately, along with buckets and buckets of mealie, come hungry rats. I have heard them chewing away at the bucket lids. I have seen them up in the rafters of the next room (there is a wall in between my room and the next room but it doesn’t go all the way to the roof). I have jumped over a rat on my way from the pit latrine to my room one early morning. And now, the rats have invaded. After months, they have found my room. I first noticed that a couple of my apples had been nibbled. I complained, “Ugh, why do they have to ruin all my apples. Why can’t they just eat one?” As if in response, the next day the whole apple was gone. The next day, I came home to my first encounter. The rat wasn’t expecting me home so early and upon seeing me, ran to take refuge in my wardrobe. Uh-huh. I don’t want rat piss all over my clothes. I kicked the wardrobe until he dashed out and over the wall to the next room. The battle had begun. The next day, I was sitting outside reading and came in as it was getting dark. Again taking the rat by surprise, he tried to hide behind my pots. I tried the kicking method again but this time the rat took refuge under my bed. How would I sleep at night knowing a rat was right under me? Time to call in the troops. Time for drastic actions. I then borrowed a cat and sat on my bed in the dark for at least 30 minutes, trying to lure the rat into my room so that the cat could pounce. To no avail. Unfortunately, the battle wages on. I plan to buy traps this weekend, although I’m not sure what I will do if I come home to a rat nailed to a trap on top of my fruit. This may be the first time in my life that I ever wanted to own a cat.