Ben Galt

Sunday night I returned home to my humble sanctuary only to receive an unpleasant surprise. My bedroom had a lingering odor which reminded me of a pooh-ey nappy. But how could this be? My niece hadn’t been over that day and all of my shoes had clean soles… Something was amiss!

After eliminating all the possible culprits I remembered that only a week earlier I had heard the scratching of tiny claws in the roof. As I connected the dots it became clear… A pesky rodent had gone and karked it in the most inconvenient place possible, the roof of my bedroom. By the time I figured out what had happened I was too tired to deal with it. So off to bed I went.

The following night, what had started out as a bad smell, was now a nauseating slap in the face, and something had to be done. So into the laundry and up the manhole I went with a bag in one hand and a torch in the other. After 15 minutes of crawling around in awkward positions, and still no sign of it, I was beginning to lose hope. So I took a breather and mum went up for a girl look. 15 more minutes of searching and the elusive rodent was still nowhere to be found. It had to be there somewhere… Surely!

With newfound determination I ventured back up the ladder to rejoin my mother in search of the source. We weren’t quitting until it was found. Period!

Then, only minutes later I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Over in the corner, in the most difficult place to get to, was the karkus of an expired rat. EUREKA!

Armed with a plastic bag and my limbs at full stretch I was able to secure the culprit. As quickly as possible and with minimal dry-reaching the rat was shown its new home outside in the wheelie bin. Things could now return to normal.

A good team effort mum.