One Man. One Rat. One Of Them MUST Die!!

[Raymond]

The true short story of one family, one critter, and one month's worth of problems.

A comedic look at the travails of being a homeowner and dealing with the occasional uninvited houseguest.

First profits will be made payable to our local appliance dealer since our critter ATE our dishwasher. Wait until you see those pictures.

Ratticus: A True Tale from Critter Corner

[Colby]

Ratticus...Finch? I love the name, haha!

[Patricia]

Raymond wrote: "The true short story of one family, one critter, and one month's worth of problems.

A comedic look at the travails of being a homeowner and dealing with the occasional uninvited houseguest.

F..."

Hi, Raymond, because I write about critters, plus I love a good laugh, I've just purchased your eBook. I will read it and give you an honest review. Love the title and the cover.

Molly Gumnut Rescues a Baby Bandicoot
Velvet Ball and The Broken Fairy

Star-Crossed Rascals

[Raymond]

Patricia,

Thank you - that is very kind of you - please do let me know what you think of it. I have wondered about the cover - whether or not it was good enough. I did it myself - so I really was not too sure about it.

I will have to check out your books as well.

Raymond

[Patricia]

Raymond wrote: "Patricia,

Thank you - that is very kind of you - please do let me know what you think of it. I have wondered about the cover - whether or not it was good enough. I did it myself - so I really ..."

Raymond. I will certainly let you know what I think. I will give you a review. The cover must be okay as I bought the book. After I've read it, I'll see if I have any rat photos that might fit. I caught, filmed, photographed and fed a family of rats that were raiding our veggie patch. LOL. Not! Theý were quite cute to look at. Big brown eyes, pink lips and feet and light brown fur. They were quite big too. Oh, I caught them in a safe trap, then released them down by the river.

[Raymond]

Patricia,

Originally we were trying to capture "Ratticus" in a safe trap as well. When he (hmm ... not sure - didn't peek under the tail - maybe she) started terrorizing my wife and daughter though - it was time to get serious. Eating a loaf of bread off our counter - and DESTROYING our dishwasher by eating it - believe it or not - was the last straw!!

Raymond

[Patricia]

Hey, I understand. We've been invaded by antechinus. They are smaller than a rat, but larger than a mouse. They are Australian marsupials and a protected species.

They are hard to catch and a family of them terrorised our blind guinea pig by going into his cage at night and eating his food. (He lives in our lounge room.)

We finally caught 16 of the little blighters. They are insect eaters, but love guinea pig treats too. We caught them in a safe trap and released them up a tree in the woods, but when more came back this year it was the final straw.

We can't seem to catch them this time, though we found the hole. A tiny one in the corner of the lounge room behind the bookcase. The little blighters had chewed their way through concrete and through the carpet where the carpet-layer had hammered in some wood. LOL. Not!

I'm looking forward to your book, but I bet I don't like the outcome. :(

[Raymond]

Wow!! I've never even heard of antechinus. Talk about learning something new everyday. I love learning new facts about things I am unaware of.

So you currently have them roaming the house? My wife would have moved by now. She was much more patient than I thought she would be.

We were trying traps, etc. up until the time when Sir Ratticus ran across the family room in broad daylight.

How are you going to try to catch the latest brood?

[Patricia]

Raymond, I couldn't see a picture of your book on Goodreads to add to my books to read shelf. Do you have a link?

I don't know how we'll catch the antechinus this year. They're getting smarter. The roof space is full of them because of our wet weather. I'm hoping they haven't gotten back into the house, though I saw a baby poo the other day. Unlike mice, antechinus have long skinny poos with a curl on the end. :)

Here is a link to one of my blog posts last year if you want to see what they look like.
http://trish-mollygumnut.blogspot.com...

[Raymond]

Patricia,

I'm pretty new at Goodreads - and my profile seems to have two separate books (with the same title) listed - one has a cover image - and the other does not. I tried to do the "combine" thing - but I don't seem to have the right to do that. Hmm ...

I just checked out your blog. Very cute little critters - I can't really say that Ratticus was that cute - especially when we found his droppings under our couch - in the dog's food bowl, etc.

Raymond

[Patricia]

Hehehe. We found antechinus droppings in our guinea pigs food bowl too. Yuck! He didn't like it one bit.

I once had a mouse run across my head three nights in a row. I'd just come out of hospital after an opperation and I wasn't in the mood.

It's 3.25am now and I'm off to bed, but I'll tell you a really funny mouse story tomorrow.

[Raymond]

Patricia,

You've got my curiosity peaked with the previous comment about your funny mouse story.

Raymond

[Patricia]

Okay, my husband was driving me to the hospital for day surgery a few years ago. I wasn't able to eat anything for two days, just this horrid liquid. Anyway, we were in the car when I smelled this horrible pong like a dead animal. We searched the car as I felt sick, but we couldn't find anything.

A few days later, I had to take the car in for service and I asked the mechanic to see if he could find a dead mouse in the engine somewhere. He couldn't. A week passed and we still couldn't find the offending smell, but a few days after that my husband got in the car and drove down to the riverbank to collect cow poo from the cow fields. When he came back he was cringing. Guess why? Well, he'd put his cap on, the one he kept in the back of the car on the back window shelf. He’d been walking around the fields for twenty minutes not knowing there was a dead mouse sitting on top of his bald head. It had been inside his cap all along. LOL Not! Hahahahhaa.

But I have an even worse story than that one. This also happened to my husband a couple of years ago. I'll tell you tomorrow. :)

[Raymond]

Patricia wrote: "Okay, my husband was driving me to the hospital for day surgery a few years ago. I wasn't able to eat anything for two days, just this horrid liquid. Anyway, we were in the car when I smelled this ..."

Patricia,

That is both horrifying and hysterical!! Read your reply out loud to my wife last night and I think she checked her head every 2 minutes for the rest of the evening. ;-)

Raymond

[Patricia]

Okay, Ray, are you ready for the next mouse - rat story?

When we first started building our brick home in the country, we rented an old farm house not far away. After working a fourteen hour day, like we did every day for two years until the house was finished, we went home for a meal and some sleep. One night, while I was cooking dinner, my husband went to the bathroom, and after a few minutes he called out my name. Or should I say he screamed out my name.

I ran and stood outside the toilet door and asked him what was wrong. Did he need more toilet paper? No, he yelled at me. He wanted a clean wash cloth and a bucket of hot soapy water. He opened the door and there he was, sat on the loo with brown liquid on his head.

Curling my nose up, I asked him what it was and he pointed to the ceiling fan above him.

When we turned the light on in the loo, the fan automatically came on. That night, there must have been a mouse, rat or antechinus, sitting in the fan and it got crushed, but from the colour of the blood it must have been there for a while. It stunk so bad, even worse than the one in the car.

My husband didn't like me giving him a nickname. Well, I don't blame him. Who wants to be called Rathead? LOL. Hahahhaha.

Karma got me though. We eventually moved into our completed brick garage while we finished building the house, and one night I felt something cold and wet on my back. I scratched it, then I screamed as there was something soggy on my finger. It was a dead mouse. I must have crushed it when I got into bed and it had stuck to my back. Yuck!!! Mice regularly ran across our heads when we slept in that garage.

I hope your wife enjoys this one, Ray. I’m just reading your story now. LOL.

[Raymond]

Patricia,

I'm fairly certainly that YOU should have written my story instead of me!!

Really hard to comprehend all your critter mishaps!! Is that common where you live - or are you a "critter magnet" like me?

[Patricia]

Hahahaa. We are critter magnets like you and your wife. However, we live in the middle of a critter jungle. We live in a rural area and are surrounded by gumtrees and wetlands. If you look at the picture on the top of my blog, you will see kangaroos in my back garden. There is a forest and the river below too. In my book trailer for Velvet Ball and The Broken Fairy, I used pictures of the forest surrounding us.

Only this morning, I found more antechinus droppings in one of the bedrooms, and that means we have been invaded by antechinus again. Oh, no!!! They are so hard to catch. They sneak around at night, hanhining upside down on the ceiling, eating spiders. They eat cockroaches too and moths, so they're well fed, and now they are warm. I hope they haven't made a nest as they can have up to eight babies. Boo hoo.

You're story is great Ray, I finished it late last night. I'll give you a review today.