We HAD a RAT

Notice how I use the word 'had.' So about two months ago we thought that we had a mouse living in our garage. I know, DISGUSTING! Chris put out mouse trap after mouse trap and it did no good. The traps would either disappear or the food wood get eaten but no mouse. Well about a month ago I opened the garage to pull the car in and there staring at me was not a tiny little mouse but a HUGE RAT! That's right a rat. I couldn't put the garage door down fast enough and the rat just kept running into things in the garage trying to find somewhere to hide. I still cringe at the thought and till this day I can't step foot in the garage. I ran in the house screaming, telling Chris that no wonder his dumb little mouse traps didn't work. The rat was twice as big as the traps. The next morning we got up and immediately cleaned out every corner of the garage. I could believe what we found. I had left a box of granola bars out side and the rat was in free food heaven. We figured since the food was gone we had seen the last of the rat. For about two weeks we hadn't see the rat or any rat droppings. That all changed on Thursday night.

Lupe stopped by at around 10:30pm to hang out and watch TV. On her way home she called to tell me that her power steering light was on. We both hoped is was just low on fluid since she drives alot for work. The next morning she took her car into Jiffy Lube to get the fluid checked and when the worker opened up the hood of her car he jumped back about 10 feet and yelled "OH @*&%, there's a big harry rat in your engine!" That's right our rat had been hanging out in our yard and on Thursday night decided to hitch a ride in Lupe's car. Poor Lupe. She freaked out because rodents are known to do thousands of dollars in damage to car engines. For the next day and a half she tried everything to get the rat out. My uncle tried to drown it by flooding it with water, poison it, spray it with high powered air, Lupe even drove the car for hours on end in hopes that it would fry, but all with no luck. Finally on Friday night Lupe took the car over to Lily's and my uncle had the bright idea to spray it with chemical engine cleaner. It didn't look like that was going to work because they never saw it leave the engine. But the next morning as Lily was watering her plants on the side yard she found a decapitated rat with it's eyes burned out. I kid you not this all really happened. The rat started at my house, left with my Aunt Lupe and died at my Aunt Lily's. Till this day I can't stand to walk in the garage and Lupe still thinks she hears the rat scratching on the inside of her car. I think we will be traumatized for life. We look back now and laugh and the whole drawn out story of the rat. But in the end I will never leave any kind of food in the garage again!!! The upside of the story is that Anna thanked Lupe for taking the rat home with her. Anna said to me when she found out that the rat was gone "Mommy, call Tia and tell her thank you for taking our rat so we can go in the garage again."

Thanks Lupe!!! Come over again real soon!!!