I have a confession. I intensely dislike, no that's not quite right. I actually hate introduced rats and mice around my home.
We have had a bit of an infestation at Casa da Ayre since we moved in - they live in the palm trees in our garden and I've had a bugger of a job getting rid of them because we have dogs and cannot risk poison. Even though the risk of secondary poisoning is very low and treatment with Vitamin K will reverse the toxin of choice, Brodifacoum we still would rather not use poison. Brodifacoum is the poison used on Australia's most successful eradication campaign, on the world heritage sub-Antarctic territory, Macquarie Island.
Anyway, we had a rat decide to move into our garage. I'd seen the cheeky big sod about a dozen times over the last month, and it had successfully evaded my every trap. Until tonight. With great satisfaction I caught the rat tonight in a trap. Rolled oats mixed with peanut butter was the successful lure.
To my surprise, I discovered the rat was a tripod. It only had had three legs - it was missing it's front right leg above the knee. I had no idea it was so incapacitated, and the times I'd seen it, it was off like a rocket, without any sign of injury or mobility problem. The injury appeared to be quite old, and perfectly healed. So either Belmont rats are made of tough stuff indeed, or we have more than one living in our garage . . . I suspect the latter.
The battle continues !
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