Originally written: 20 July 2012 at 18:03
It had been leaving signs all over the house - a half-eaten tomato - and object impermanence, as in things having been dislodged from their rightful perches... I wondered how big it was, but didn't really spend too much time as it kept out of my way.
Last evening, however, I saw it for the first time. Opening a cupboard in the kitchen to take out my new tool kit - to show it to a colleague - I saw it dodge behind the LPG cylinder, double back on the other side, hop onto the gas pipe then down again. "There's a huge rat in here," I announced to Tyger and said colleague. Well, size is relative, so let me say that had I tried to pick it up, it would have filled the length of my palm from nose to the beginning of its tail... that's quite huge, right?
Thinking fast, but not fast enough, I tried to shut the cupboard door, but it was faster. It slipped out through the gap under the door and made a run for the dining room. We watched it careening around, under the sofa, before it disappeared... somewhere.
Half an hour later we had still not managed to locate it anywhere. I have to confess that each time I woke up at night I switched on the lights to check if it was in the vicinity, perhaps about to attack my toes (seriously, I'm not being paranoid; one of my HODs did get bitten by a rat and had to have rabies shots last year!).
In the morning there was still no sign of it... till I opened the cabinet under the sink to add something to the dustbin. There it was, looking at me shyly from the garbage...
At about midday, the pest control bhaiya dropped in. All he could do was to toss some rat poison into the two possible cupboards. "All the rat traps have been lent out to teachers who are still away on vacation," he informed me. "But," he reassured, "the poison should work."
I firmly shut the kitchen door and refused to have any truck with the area till the rat was evicted, dead or alive.
In the evening, when I tried to enlist the help of the Sodexo bhaiya's, they asked for back up and reinforcements. There we were, and I was issuing instructions... "one of us will open the cupboard and shoo it out while the other three will line up here with brooms and nudge it out of the front door..." I was interrupted with, "Just give us a plastic bag and a broom. We will catch it."
"Really, seriously?"
"Really," they said, entering the kitchen and firmly shutting me out. In the next 15 minutes (or hours? for time too is relative) all I could hear from within were crashes, bumps, banging cupboard doors... and finally, silence. Three brave men and a rat.
They emerged looking very pleased with themselves, the rat in the bag, the kitchen cleared of debris. "It's alive," they announced proudly, holding up the trophy bag. They marched out debating on what to do with it next. "Please release it outside the campus - otherwise it will find someone else's house to inhabit..." I suggested, between "Thankyous" and "really grateful"....
As they exited the building I found myself thinking, "This is Pathways... we may have few sophisticated means and methods but we always rise to the occasion and get the job done!"
But perhaps I should get a cat...?
It had been leaving signs all over the house - a half-eaten tomato - and object impermanence, as in things having been dislodged from their rightful perches... I wondered how big it was, but didn't really spend too much time as it kept out of my way.
Last evening, however, I saw it for the first time. Opening a cupboard in the kitchen to take out my new tool kit - to show it to a colleague - I saw it dodge behind the LPG cylinder, double back on the other side, hop onto the gas pipe then down again. "There's a huge rat in here," I announced to Tyger and said colleague. Well, size is relative, so let me say that had I tried to pick it up, it would have filled the length of my palm from nose to the beginning of its tail... that's quite huge, right?
Thinking fast, but not fast enough, I tried to shut the cupboard door, but it was faster. It slipped out through the gap under the door and made a run for the dining room. We watched it careening around, under the sofa, before it disappeared... somewhere.
Half an hour later we had still not managed to locate it anywhere. I have to confess that each time I woke up at night I switched on the lights to check if it was in the vicinity, perhaps about to attack my toes (seriously, I'm not being paranoid; one of my HODs did get bitten by a rat and had to have rabies shots last year!).
In the morning there was still no sign of it... till I opened the cabinet under the sink to add something to the dustbin. There it was, looking at me shyly from the garbage...
At about midday, the pest control bhaiya dropped in. All he could do was to toss some rat poison into the two possible cupboards. "All the rat traps have been lent out to teachers who are still away on vacation," he informed me. "But," he reassured, "the poison should work."
I firmly shut the kitchen door and refused to have any truck with the area till the rat was evicted, dead or alive.
In the evening, when I tried to enlist the help of the Sodexo bhaiya's, they asked for back up and reinforcements. There we were, and I was issuing instructions... "one of us will open the cupboard and shoo it out while the other three will line up here with brooms and nudge it out of the front door..." I was interrupted with, "Just give us a plastic bag and a broom. We will catch it."
"Really, seriously?"
"Really," they said, entering the kitchen and firmly shutting me out. In the next 15 minutes (or hours? for time too is relative) all I could hear from within were crashes, bumps, banging cupboard doors... and finally, silence. Three brave men and a rat.
They emerged looking very pleased with themselves, the rat in the bag, the kitchen cleared of debris. "It's alive," they announced proudly, holding up the trophy bag. They marched out debating on what to do with it next. "Please release it outside the campus - otherwise it will find someone else's house to inhabit..." I suggested, between "Thankyous" and "really grateful"....
As they exited the building I found myself thinking, "This is Pathways... we may have few sophisticated means and methods but we always rise to the occasion and get the job done!"
But perhaps I should get a cat...?
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