It's A Rat Trap Judy ...

There Are Watching You Jezi! 

Six and a half cats but it takes a GSD to let you know you have a rat in the dog food shed. After Jezi spending two days obsessively watching the shed we knew something was afoot and this morning I set to emptying the shed whilst Steve went out for traps and plotted his next move. The hole was right at the back at the bottom, thirty nine fecking bags I had to shift out of the shed and then sort them into damaged, damaged beyond use and undamaged. We have been really lucky that Jezi alerted us to the intruder or we could have lost a lot more.
I had to leave the dogs in the house whilst I cleared out and disinfected the shed. The danger to dogs from rats is known to every dog owner, and though the rat poo is revolting it's the urine that causes the danger. As normal everyday routine any water containers left outside are washed out daily here. There is a risk of giardia from smelly green water bowls and all you need is rat urine in the dogs drinking water and you could have a very poorly dog.
I believe life is precious and I hate killing anything but I do draw the line when my animals could be at risk. Of course we can't use poison but this rat has to go. It would be so much easier if Isla had dealt with it for me, but of course once the rat had got into the shed through her "door" there was no way Isla could get in. So now the hole is blocked and there is a trap set in the shed and another will set up overnight behind the shed.
So our wellies are disinfected, we've both had a bath and our clothes are in the washing machine .. Yeah, quite an unpleasant morning really but I guess it's the first time in 8 or so years of storing food in bulk so maybe we've been lucky to date. Here's hoping this is soon over and done with.