Monday, March 26, 2012

Rodent encounter

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, I guess. We had our first encounter this afternoon with a real, LIVE Peruvian rat. It just came walking through the front door about 4:30 this afternoon. We leave our doors open all day for good air circulation (NO climate control here), and it must have felt invited in. Julie was sitting at the dining room table and saw it enter the living room and scuttle under a bookshelf.

All hands were called on deck (with surprising calmness), and with the help of sticks and bug spray, it was encourage to come out and fight like a man. After Scott poked and sprayed (and probably maimed it), it was decided that it was more strategic for Kevin to flush it out in Scott's direction. Nathan was manning the back door, and Julie was blocking access to the kitchen. If it came out like a lightning bolt, we at least wanted to encourage it back out the front door. Littler kids were mostly up in the swing set!

Well, it did come out, thankfully not moving with too much agility, and as planned it started coming in Scott's direction, not without a bit more encouragement by Kevin---well done, Kevin! Scott was wielding  Kevin's wooden Samurai sword and successfully delivered some fatal blows before it got away. It was a good 9-10" fellow with tail equally as long. We thought we would spare you the pictures (actually, we didn't even think about it until he was bagged and out with the trash), but maybe we can post one of the Samurai sword! Never a dull moment here in Peru!