Check out these Attic Ladder images:
rats
Image by Lance McCord
Two weeks ago, we found rodent droppings in the attic.
Dilemma One: to kill, or not to kill? I wasn’t home when Exterminator came. He asked Arica whether we wanted live traps, or dead. Arica settled (quite wisely, I think) on killing machines. Neither of us is much for murder, but in a conflict of interests involving rats, the rats lose. Exterminator went to his truck and came back saying that he only had live traps.
Ok, then.
Exterminator would be back in One Week’s Time to collect the bodies.
Friday: I go into the attic to collect holiday decorations, and find that at least two of the traps are occupied. [Dilemma One has now reached a head.] Even a rat, too weak to stand completely up and mired in its own piss and feces inspires sympathy. Even a rat. Arica and I had a conversation about First Principles, and any impulse I had to rescue the beasts was subordinated to my desire to not live with rats.
Dilemma Two: creepy. Did I mention that Exterminator charges per occupied trap during his return visit? That visit is tomorrow, and so tonight I was faced with a pretty simple question: is it worth to 0 to not have to deal with the consequences of my murderous imperialism? Of course it isn’t. Right?
I still needed a beer before I could go into the attic, garbage bag in hand, to gather certain rodents’ mortal coils.
In the end, it was the fact that I could photograph the aftermath that gave me the strength to take the first steps up the ladder. Hooray for morbid fascination!
There were three occupied traps. ["Occupied" here means containing a rat, claws scraped to ragged bloody messes, jaws locked around steel wire, swollen and stiff.] There are three dead rats in a bag, in the garbage can outside. Trash collection occurs in the morning.
Funny thing: on my way to the ladder, I walked past two pet cats and a rat terrier named Daisy. Must teach pets to climb ladders.
P2170167
Image by mikebdoss
Day 48: The "hidden" ladder to access the "attic".
Cupola of St. Curvy
Image by TunnelBug
After a laboured walk up through the attic, and kitty corner from the main storage area, up a tiny ladder, and through a tiny hole – one emerges into the light and is greeted with this hidden room.