If you live in or near a forest like I do

Last night my yellow labrador who is about 95 pounds was sleeping on the floor in front of me as I watched TV I noticed something out the corner of my eye. I couldn't believe what I thought I saw. However, I realized telling everyone in the house about it wasn't a good idea, because I had just seen either a mouse or a rat, likely a rat by it's size. I thought to myself. "If this is what I actually saw and it wasn't just a fluke of what I saw running under the couch when I wasn't looking for it out of the corner of my eye I realized it had to have come through the back door to the yard because there was no way it could have gotten in any other way.

So, I went to sleep last night and somehow I sensed this wasn't a problem both because of my smaller dog which is a ratter and a gopher catcher and I wasn't as sure if my Yellow lab would do anything at all unless it ran right when he saw it because he is a hunting bird dog by breed. They have webbed toes so they in the past and sometimes in the present ran out into ponds to gather ducks or geese their owners shot. I'm not a hunter by my grandfather was. And my father taught me to shoot very accurately with a rifle up to 100 yards or more away by the time I was 8 or 10 in the 1950s. This was pretty normal for boys raised in western states then. So, everyone I knew could shoot pretty accurately by about 8 or 10 years of age then. Many boys my age took these hunting and shooting skills into the Viet Nam War in the 1960s and 1970s.

So, today what happened?

Today my wife said, "Fred, There's a dead rat out here by the bird feeder. The crows are attacking it."

I thought, "How strange is this?"

However, I know I have protector dieties who always protect my family from harm always. If there is something I need to know to protect myself or my family God will show me usually through angels.

So, my thought was, "Oh. This is the rat that was in the house last night and his or her karma was to die for that intrusion." So, to me this was a natural consequence for invading my home.




So, I went out with a an empty doggie poop bag to pick up the rat and to put it somewhere out of the yard. I thought to myself, "What if this rat has rabies or something else? I need to get it out of the backyard and away from my dogs."

So, as I walked closer the rat moved not easily because I could see the crows had injured it when it competed for the bird feeder against the birds and squirrels that my wife had set up for all of them off the den porch. So, it wasn't safe enough for me to pick it up.

I also didn't get a good feeling about killing it because of my ahimsa vows I took in 1983 I believe which is a vow not to murder anything if it is practical to do something else, not even a spider or a fly or a rat or a mouse. However, you have to protect your home from intruders both human and otherwise, don't you?

So, I decided to get a flat nosed shovel and to pick up the rat and put it into the green belt next to our home where it could either recover or die peacefully. However, when I tried to do this it jumped away and screamed. So, I realized it had more life in it than I had originally expected. I saw some blood on it's tail from the crows pecking at it.

So, I let it hide in my woodshed for now to see if it died or recovered. However, my corgi smelled it and wanted to go in there after it. But, I wouldn't let her for now because I didn't want her to get sick if it had an illness for now.

I'm thinking that if this rat survives it will leave this area because of the birds and dogs and likey squirrels that might attack it while competing for bird seed.

Something you should know if you have dogs: All rats need to live is dog poop and water and that's all.

So, if you have dogs rats will eat their poop if you live near or in a forest like me. So, I clean up after my dogs if they aren't doing their business outside on a trail or fire road while we are walking every day.

Just remember this because if you are on the edge of a forest or wilderness or even in the wild desert this might happen to you where if you have dogs in your back or front yard that during some time of the  year rats might move into your attic or roof or even under your house any way that they can.

Also, another thing to know about rats is that they can gnaw through cement block or wood if they are ambitious enough or they smell food on the other side.

Also, General contractors have been working around our home installing french style wooden sliding doors and they also put a fire door and new central heating system in the house too. So, when the put the new ducting in our housekeeper screamed one day to find the floor out of one of our closets where they had put one of the ducts through without re-installing the flooring so she could see the ground under our house and a dead rat there.

So, I got busy and sealed it up with plywood and flashing and black Gorrilla tape (stronger than duct tape and black.

However, as my wife had me check there there was one place that the rats had found a place big enough for them to enter the closet and had chewed through the duct tape in one place I couldn't seal perfectly. So, once again tonight I got out my Makita (automatic Screwdriver or drill) and put a phillips head on it and screwed screw nails through more flashing (tin) to block entry that way. I realized eventually I'm going to have to put a plywood box and entirely close in that duct traveling through the bottom of this hallway closet to the 2 car garage.

So, if you live in the country you have to be prepared (depending upon where you live) for rats, mice, all sorts of birds and squirrels, gophers, salamanders, Oak and Apple worms and moths, and raccoons, skunks, Mountain lions (our neighbor saw a big male mountain lion this year around breakfast time sauntering through her yard at about 7:30 AM in the morning. I think this sort of ruined her day.

However, I have been around Bobcats and Mountain lions and as long as you know where they are they usually aren't going to jump on your back and bite your neck like they do when people jog past them or ride past them on bikes. Often they will sit on a roof or a big oak limb and jump down on you from behind if you don't see them.

They need you not to see them to attack you though most of the time. So, just be sure you are aware of them and see them. You tend to get a weird feeling in the back of your neck if they are stalking you. I have had this experience many times and then I look back and am much more vigilant until I'm back to my truck and out of danger.

My most amazing true story about Mountain lions that happened within 20 miles of here. A Mountain lion jumped over a fence carrying a 150 to 175 pound German shepard dog. The fence was at least 7 feet high. Unfortunately for the dog (if it was still alive) it was wearing a chain around it's neck and so was hung to death the other side of the fence. The lion left it there likely because it couldn't understand this.

So,  you can imagine just how strong these things actually are and could easily do the same thing with a human being. So, it's very important that you are aware when you are in mountain lion territory so you can take precautions.