So, as is a problem in most of the houses that the locals live in, rats are everywhere. The first and only thing people tell you is that if you don't like rats get a cat. As many of you know I am not a cat person at all, but seeing as I dislike rats even more I figured I’d sleep with the lesser of two evils. Luckily for me when I first moved in my host family's cat was pregnant and I was promised one of the litter. Turns out only one survived and I named her Gizmo. She's grown up rapidly and I feed her regularly and even pet her occasionally, making me the most loving cat owner on my side of Maewo. She's now coming to the age where she is catching rats on her own, so this had me very excited as it should have spelled an end to my rats. Unfortunately, my cat realized that more rats hang out in my kitchen house than in my sleeping house and therefore she rarely comes into my sleeping house. This didn't bother me too much as I’d already taken a large number of precautions to avoid having issues with the rats. I kept my clothes on hangars so they wouldn't chew them, or urinate in them, or nest in them. I left no little areas for them to hide out in clothes. I keep all of my food in the kitchen or in tightly sealed metal containers in my house. I even make sure than I keep all empty boxes or anything they could turn into a home closed up and packed tightly away. So when I did see and hear rats in my house it never bothered me too much because they weren't sleeping in my house and the most destructive thing they'd done was steal an almost finished bar of soap. Then, during Stephanie's visit, out of the blue they decided the spines of my hardback books would make a great snack, and would wake us up in the middle of the night to loud chewing sounds as they shredded the spines of my brand new hardback books that Stephanie had brought me. This was unforgivable. The first thing I did when I found a hardware store was purchase a wicked looking mouse trap. If the cat wasn't prepared to take out the rats in my house then I’d have to take matters into my own hands, because living with me is OK, but eating my books is not! So upon returning to Maewo the first night back I placed a cracker in the trap and set it in an easily rat accessible spot and waited. The first night nothing, the second night, nothing and on the third night the cracker was missing but the trap still un-sprung. Starting to become agitated with the situation I placed another cracker on the trap, but this time I wedged it in tight so they'd have to either eat only half or actually carry the trap off in order to get the cracker out. I figured this way they'd be forced to play with the mechanism that would set the trap off. That night the trap went off at about 11pm, causing me to hop out from under my mosquito net and pick up my bush knife, excited about the prospect of gutting the little bastards who'd been eating my books. I stepped into the room I’d set the trap in and shined my light only to find my cat hiding in the corner with a panicked look in her eyes as the trap was snapped shut on her paw, the cracker missing. So not only was this cat not catching the rats in my house but she was sabotaging all of my best efforts to catch them myself. After this happened I’ve begun to question which of the two is truly the greater of the evils. In comparison: they both live in your house, they both eat your food, one is invited the other isn't, one will bite you and scratch you, the other eats your books. The more I think about it the more unsure I am as to whether I’m getting a good deal out of having the cat at all if her entire purpose was to eliminate rats and she refuses to catch the ones in my house.
lol
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