Oh, Rats!

Disney lied to me. Decades of cartoon mice tried to convince me that rodents are helpful creatures that assisted with endless chores, solve crimes, and perfect one's mediocre meals. But when I stumbled upon a Ratatouille situation taking place in my own kitchen, I was less than thrilled. It was clear that I was far from the happiest place on earth.

I need to get more acquainted with my animal tracks.

A couple weeks before our real life Ratatouille situation came to light, I discovered a couple signs that something was amiss. After the fact, we did some research and discovered that it's pretty normal to take a while to figure out that you do indeed have a rat problem. This made me feel better, because rats were the furthest thing from my mind.

The first sign was occasional tracks on the kitchen counter. To us, they looked like gecko prints and we have LOTS of geckos! It's the most common creature we find in the house. I thought the prints looked similar to the shape of their feet, which I often see as they crawl over the outside of the windows. So when I saw footprints, I thought it strange, but because I know geckos free reign, I just thought they ran through the oil on the stove or flour I had forgotten to clean the night before. I would clean and sanitized the counters, and be on my way. We bought gecko spray and started putting it along the outside windows and doors, but the incidents started increasing. The second sign was what I assumed was gecko poop. This is something I am always on the lookout for and have cleaned for years, but that too started the increase in frequency. The third sign was the any time I did the dishes, water would start pouring out from underneath the sink. It became increasingly frustrating and I couldn't figure out the answers.

The evening of February 1st, while Kiel was out with some friends, and after I had put the girls to bed, I went to clean up the kitchen for the evening. As I started putting things away, I heard what sounded like squeaking coming from under the sink. I almost jumped out of my skin! I was too scared to open up the cabinets under the sink (seriously, what am I doing if a rat runs out at me?!) I text Kiel my suspicions, telling him I thought there was a rat in the house.

As I walk to the dining room table and peer into the kitchen, I see a rat run back behind the coffee pot. I freak out and jump on a chair. I call Kiel instantly, completely petrified. He says his goodbye and stays with me on the phone. I watch this rat bound across my jars and behind the washer, then scurry across the floor and dive under the fridge. I see this in time to spot a SECOND rat follow the same trail as the first, and hide behind the coffee pot.

Kiel encourages me to run upstairs and grab the dog. After all, Patches' breed is specifically known for being rat catchers. So I run upstairs and thrust open Evie's door, to which our sleepy dog looks at me with great offense. I command him to come downstairs. Confused, he sleepily gets to his feet, and follows at a slow pace. I push him into the kitchen, and jump back up on the chair. Patches turns back to look at me, as if to say, "Um, yeah ... this wasn't part of my job description ..." and proceeds to walk to the couch and curls up to sleep again. Fail.

This is how the rats came in through the house.

My view from the chair.

I'm still standing on a chair, vigilantly peering into the kitchen while on the phone with Kiel as he races home. I'm practically in tears, trying to think clearly and figure out how to get two rats out of my house. It's midnight and we've never dealt with this type of situation before. But I don't want Kiel to hang up the phone, because even though he's not physically here, somehow making sure I can hear his voice makes me feel better.

Once Kiel got home, he walks in the house carrying a metal broom. He also tries to evoke the dog to action. Patches is curious this time, and comes over in time to watch Kiel scare the rat from behind the coffee pot, which leaps over the counter and jumps behind the washer. I notice the rat under the fridge peak its head out as Kiel moves the washer and TWO rats dart across the floor, diving under the fridge. Now we have THREE RATS!!!

This becomes too much for Patches, who turns around and runs back upstairs to the safety of Evie's room. Kiel and I look at each other, confused on what to do next, and very frustrated by our useless dog. Kiel decides to open the door behind the dryer in an attempt to scare the rats in that direction (while I continue vigilantly watching from the chair). Kiel then moves the fridge and we watch a rat run out the open door and another rat run back through the tiny slot of the closed kitchen sink cabinet door, and subsequently back down through the drain pipe. We continue to search for the third rat, but after an hour, we can't find it anywhere. We conclude it ran out when we weren't looking. Kiel spends the night sanitizing (because I had appointments the next day).

Kiel's quick fix to keep the rats out.

On Thursday morning, we're told that no one can come fix the sink until Friday, so Kiel does a quick fix by removing the chewed through hose, placing a bucket over the drain, and stacking heavy tiles on top of that. We can't use the sink, but we don't have any rat sightings that entire day.

Friday morning we're getting breakfast ready as usual. I sit down with my coffee when suddenly a rat runs past my leg and hides under the sink outside the bathroom. I freakout! I'm back on the chair, but this time the littles are up. I run over to guide The Littles to the stairs and they eagerly watch us trying to wrangle this rat, which then runs from the bathroom sink back under the fridge. We search for another hour with no luck. Where is this thing?! This rat is a ninja. We need rat traps!

New metal sink with rat traps around it, just in case. The rice scooper was an unfortunate casualty.

Since Thailand is a Buddhist country, there are no traps that kill rats (because it's believed that killing any living thing results in bad karma). All that's available are these black plastic trays with ultra strong, goopy yellow glue, so we buy as many as we can in order to put them all around the house. We return home, but I don't want to go back inside. I've had enough of the rats, so I declare a "car movie" day with the girls, while Kiel sets up the rat traps and we wait for someone to come fix our sink. About 20 minutes later, Kiel comes outside triumphantly holding the dog. It turns out that Kiel scared the rat out from underneath the washer, and it ran onto the sticky trap. When Patches saw the rat was no longer a threat to anyone, he (heroically) walked right over and snapped its neck with one bite. Praise God, no rats have been seen since, but we have discovered numerous other casualties this month on the glue trays, including geckos, cockroaches, and various objects the girls have thrown toward the traps.

The sanitation process took a good week because Kiel had to leave right after the incident for 4-days of meetings in Bangkok. Thus, I cleaned in stages. Also, we don't have hot water in the kitchen and there are no dish washers, so I went through a lengthy process of boiling water to rinse and sanitize everything.

One unfortunate event and absolutely HORRIBLE event during this process was that Emelyn got caught in the rat trap glue. She is my most adventurous and inquisitive girl, so when she noticed I had pulled out the cart alongside the dryer in order to sanitize all the jars, she wandered back to explore and got every limb caught in the goopy glue. When I called Evie for help, she came and grabbed the trap off without realizing what had happened, and now my oldest was panicking. Epic meltdowns started raging because this glue is so sticky and a scary amber yellow color, which you can't just wipe off. Needless to say, it took a while to calm everyone down and unstick fingers and toes *sigh*.

Mom's cheerleaders - wash those dishes!

That said, I'm relieved that Ratatouille is said and done. Expat life is anything but dull. Truthfully, I'd love a few boring days to come my way. Despite my best efforts, all our plans, schedules, and ambitions are constantly interrupted by unexpected happenstances that render us completely unprepared and scrambling for solutions. When the fires are finally extinguished, I find myself pick up the pieces of my calendar and "to do" lists that I was forced to be thrust aside and move forward in grace. It's with a cup of tea in hand and eyes closed that I take a deep breath. I've been spread thin lately. But this moment is where I hear the Father whisper, just as He did to the Apostle Paul so long ago ...

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Thank you Lord Jesus that Your grace is enough in the unexpected chaos of my days. Give me strength to pick up the pieces and move forward successfully. Your timing is perfect and you are gracious to snuff out the source of mayhem in my life. Infuse me today and equip me to carry on. In Jesus' name, Amen.