Desert Critters

Living in Las Vegas, there are a lot of things that take some getting used to. When we first moved in there were the cockroaches. I mainly would find them dead on my floor in the mornings, but there were a few times that I saw them dash across the floor, and when I found one that had laid eggs in my sink I immediately called out the exterminator. That was the end of the cockroaches. Then a few months later the exterminator was called out again when I woke up one morning to find an army of ants marching from my wall onto my kitchen table. Once again terminex did the trick. I was just starting to breath easy when we found more desert critters sharing our home with us. It all started when Brent came in from the garage and asked me if I knew how to get rid of rats. Appearantly he he saw one run and hide in our garageunder the extra washer and dryer that we have stored in the corner of the garage. We decided to put the kids to sleep and go on a rat hunt. So we went out to the garage, I had a broom and Brent had a rake. I wasn't really that concerned because I thought that the rat would be more afraid of me than I was of him and besides, I had a weapon. So Brent got on top of the washer and dryer and started shaking it to see if it would scare the rat out. Then I heard a squeek and I saw the rat run from the corner of the garage toward the washer and dryer that Brent was standing on and parked itself under the washer. That's when the whole thing became real to me and I saw the critter. It wasn't a little mouse it was a big rat complete with a long tail and everything. Now my blood was pumping and I just wnated to get the thing out of my garage, but I was still feeling pretty confident, I had my broom for protection and the rat was trapped under the washer and cornered. So we had a plan, Brent would scare the rat out from under the washer by shaking the washer and I would smack it with the broom as it ran out of the washer and frantically away from me. So there we stood when Brent began shaking. A few shakes and nothing happened then, suddenly, the rat came bolting out from under the washer straight toward me, he ran right in between my legs and I ran away screaming. We're not too sure where the rat went after that, it's all a blur, but we're pretty sure he ran out of the garage the same way that he had been coming in. I learned a good lesson, you should never underestimate the speed or bravery of a rat, and maybe I should leave the critter trapping to the exterminator.