How much of a man are you? Problems with rats, I just can't do it

by needproof 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  needproof

  Last summer, I noticed a rat living underneath my shed in the back garden. I tried my hardest to convince my female counterpart that we had a rat living with us, but as usual was met with a wall of silence.

  So time passed and I didn't see Rodney the rat again, so I just figured that he had gone away some place else.

  A couple of weeks ago, I was looking out of my french doors at my garden when I noticed a big brown rat run across the gravel. Not good. So again I informed my female counterpart, and this time she seen it.

  "You'll have to put poison down"

  So down went the poison, begrudgingly, since I don't actually believe in killing anything. As much as I hate rats, I can't bear the thought of hurting anything. I get so obsessive about it that I actually rescue those tiny summer flies that come through the bathroom window and rest in the basin. It is as though I am doing nature a great service, I can't bear to kill anything.

  Today I have been informed that the rat was dead, all in all with the tail just under half a meter in length. 'We need to get rid of it' was a fantastic suggestion but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. This poor thing had suffered immensely through terrible stomach pains (I know all about that), was under so much pain that it ventured out in the day for some kind of relief, crawled halfway across the gravel lawn and just died through immense pain. I feel darn guilty as well. But then, what could I do? Should I have let them breed in their hundreds to take over the whole garden? Surely it is all about survival of the fittest.

  Am I looking too much into the death of just one rat? Sometimes you have to be tough in this life but the murder of this rat will now continue to plague me for the rest of the day with guilt. I couldn't watch as I scooped up the rat and placed him in a box into the trashbin. I can deal with most things, spiders, snakes, they dont bother me - but rats, although I can't stand to look at them, I can't bear to hurt anything. Surely there are guys out there who can admit the same?

  What can't you deal with?
• 

  bluebell

  hmm well ....

  i would be able to kill a rat but i would hav to get my partner to remove it and bin it!

  i tend to save flies, wasps, spiders. but every now and again i just kill em. sometimes i feel bad sometimes i dont.
• 

  Life Is Grand

  As guilty as you feel, I think you did what you had to do-you don't want to have a rat infestation-they can carry so many diseases...

  I know how you feel though. Every winter we seem to end up with a couple of mice in our house-just looking for warmth and maybe a little nibble of food I suppose. Hubby sets up the mouse trap in the kitchen cupboard-baits it with peanut butter and the poor little buggers fall for it each and every time. It makes me sick with guilt, but the same thing-don't need our family getting sick with their diseases so there really isn't any choice.

  However, I won't even look in the cupboard that holds the mouse trap-that is my husbands job-and he's so sweet(sarcasm)-he makes sure he describes in great detail how each poor dead mouse looked when he found it...like I need to know!

  I think it's time we get a cat!!!

  LIG
• 

  ninja

  ah wee rats....I don't mind them...I remember one time I had a rat problem...we hadn't cleaned the house for a while...(my wife was working full time cleaning the rugby club, fire station and male strip club)...I knew the house was really dirty when there were rats at the door scratching ...and scratching....and scratching.....eventually I had to let them out...the poor things had had enough!!!......smelly ninja
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  needproof

  Haha Ninja, rats trying to get OUT rather than in - yes, I like that. It was probably Glasgow they were trying to get out of! (slight jab there) I did go to Glasgow once but it wasn't for me. Are there many Scots left in Glasgow, and what are you, blue or green and white?

  Life is Grand - I know how you feel. I can't listen to how the poor buggers die. But then, going down another route, surely we have saved them from such a God-foresaken life?
• 

  Paralipomenon

  I'm the same way. I hate taking the life of anything else. Sometimes it's necessary and yes there is guilt, but personally the guilt is fleeting.
  
  Like a bandage, rip it off, feel the pain for a moment then get on with your life.
  
  I think I would be more concerned with someone that enjoyed killing small animals then someone who had to do so out of necessity.
• 

  Terry

  As I was about to move into a new house I entered the kitchen with a broom to sweep the floor and confronted a very large rat that had come in out of a grassy field outside.

  This rat was confrontational! It scared the living Jesus out of me!!

  I scrambled on top of the sink faster than Superman can fly to the Post Office!

  For the next ten minutes I battled that snarling, vicious and imperturbable rodent with every fibre of my manly being.

  My heart pounded like a teenager with his hand up somebody's dress!

  That rat was one tough bastard! I have little doubt it would have gnawed me into splinters and chunks if I weren't on the high ground like a sissy-girl in gingham!

  Finally, I managed to urge this bestial bundle of fang and claw out the back screen door with staggering blows from my broom. It turned tail and casually sauntered off into the grassy area; now and then pausing to look back and hiss its imprecations at me.

  I trembled for half an hour.

  When all was said and done I told the landlord I simply could not live there! But, he wouldn't let me out of the lease.

  About three months later my wife sat on the toilet in the middle of the night only to have a snake poke its head out of the bowl as she was peeing!

  The sound of her scream still rings in my ears and that was in 1974!
• 

  needproof

  Para, what excellent points. I like the one about ripping the bandage off and just getting on with it. Thank you, that genuinely helped.

  Terry, that was one funny post! Had me in stitches! LOLOL
• 

  DJK

  Terry, that was one funny post! Had me in stitches! LOLOL

  Me too. It took me eight minute's to touch the keyboard. I'm still wondering what the snakes reaction was.

  Don't feel giulty about the rat. They are a dangerous and disease carrying pest that multiply very fast. (No reference to the domesticated rat, for you rat owners, is intended).
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  The wanderer