Sitting here in the office in Zona Colonial one day working on the web site (www.colonialzone-dr.com) I felt something bump into my foot. I jumped and looked down and this giant rat was scurrying away under the sofa. The thing was a big ole brown rat. Much larger than the pet rats my son used to have. This thing was larger than most cats I've seen around here. He must have been eating really well and lived a long life to get that large.
Well, I hurriedly finished what I was doing all the while holding my feet up off the floor (it isn't easy for this old girl to hold the feet up for long). I turned off the computer and shut down the office and was outta there!
The guys in the gift shop in front of the office gave me a strange look as I came running out of the office and into the gift shop. I told them about the rat and Willy decided to take on the hunt and kill the varmint. Grabbing a broom stick he went to the back patio with me following behind holding onto his belt loop saying "ooh,ooh". I told Willy to shoot the thing and he just laughed at me (I remember when I worked in a warehouse once in USA and we had a rat. We tried everything to capture that thing. Finally the owner laid in wait with his gun and shot that rat dead!).
The rat was there on the patio and Willy went in with the stick while I was making little ewwh and yuck sounds. He was poking the rat and it was darting behind the stuff out back. The monster even jumped up in the air a few times (when he jumped I ran to the kitchen for cover). Then the nasty creature disappeared nowhere to be found. I grabbed some rat sticky paper and covered a hole where the drain was hoping when he went to escape he would get caught.
I went to the Colmado for a beer to calm my jittery nerves and returned to see if that bugger was caught all stuck to the tape. No wonder he was so big and lived a long life, he was a smart big creature. The tape was moved off the hole and he was gone.
I had rat dreams all night jumping at every little movement in my apartment.
the next day the rat was the topic of conversation in the gift shop. He returned that morning to visit the kitchen and see what he could have for breakfast. He was scratching at the office door so now there is some tin all along the bottom. They chased him but he got away again. They covered the hole with a pipe to keep him out. But this was not the end of the rat.
I went to go to the bathroom, very carefully checking all around for the rat incase he was hiding and there he was! Inside a bag on the counter! I yelled and Willy and Mamita came running with Melanie close behind. Willy was hitting the thing while Mamita was trying to block it from getting out of the room. Melanie and I were peeking around the corner and running away every time that thing jumped in the air.
the damn rat got away again, down the hole. So, they mixed up some cement and filled the hole in. I was waiting to see if it held before I wrote the story and it seems like it did the job. The rat has not returned. I keep checking the hole, with much trepidation mind you, and it is still cemented in.
I'm still cautious because you never know when he will return. Maybe he'll find another way in or maybe he will just eat through the cement and return for a visit. If I had my camera (but remember it was stolen)I'd have a picture here of Willy and Mamita after the rat and another of the rat in the bag. I just hope this is the end of the rat story.
