It was during this time that I became aware that I have a lodger of some sorts sharing my house and my fruit and veggies with me. I found a lot of my fruit eaten away at, also some of the veggies, and I knew that it must be a rat, as a mouse could not make such large indents on said food! This was one clever rodent, and I named him the silent nightwalker, as I just could not find where he had made his nest, and as my door at the back was mostly shut, trying to keep the two legged intruders out, it kept this intruder inside, and apparently he was very relaxed and at one with the world in my house! When I forgot to put away my margarine one night after having made myself a midnight sarmie, I found in the morning that the rat had chewed right through the plastic container, and had a feast on the margerine, and I hoped that he had a lekker tummy ache. It is not so much the margerine being spoiled, as the fact that the shops around Haarlem did not keep heart friendly stuff, so I had to drive to Uniondale or Misgund to get some.
One night after I was frozen into a shivering bundle when Sheila's bally peacocks again started giving their wild jungle cries on my roof, I lay awake for some time, then decided to go up to the main house and make a cuppa. Hendrix, my supposed to be guard, was even more stressed out than me, and sat staring at me with wide eyes, and I tried to console him and get him back into his bed, but he decided that on no account was he going to stay alone with that wild cries now reverberating across the valley from Gary and Ronalee's side!
I of course had to unlock all my bedroom doors, then run up to the main part, where another set of locks had to be undone before I would be safely inside again, and it was scary, as of course there was not another sole close by for about half a kilometer!
Hendrix followed short on my heels, and when I put the kitchen light on and found a huge rat sitting on the table, a nice red apple lying half eaten in front of him, I got one heck of a fright, and promptly jumped onto the nearest chair, for what reason I still do not know, as I am just not the chair jumping type, and to top this silliness, Hendrix tried his best to join me. The rat, a piece of apple hanging from his slack jaw, must have had a bigger fright than me, as he gave one screech, and fell with a loud 'plop' off the table and onto the floor, where he never stopped to have another look before legging it to the scullery where he disappeared like lightning into the cavity between the sink and the wall.
Once the threat was out of sight Hendrix took heart, and stood barking until I had my tea made and we made our hazardous way back to bed.
When I told Ronalee about my lodger, she gave me a rat catcher, a kind of device with a trap door, and you have to put some food into this cilinder like contraption, where-upon mr. Rat would be tempted into entering, and once in, the trapdoor would come down, and voila, you have a trapped rat! But what bothered me was what to do with the rat once caught, as I have heard a rumour that they have the ability to always find their way back to the house of plenty!
But my rat was one clever beasty, as nothing could get him to enter this trap, not even when I put some bread, heavily topped with margerine, his all time favorite in, did he loose his cool, and crawled in!
My garden was coming on nicely, and my roses, their thirst thoroughly quenched by the flood waters, were a lovely sight to behold. Even the rambling ones that I planted to cover the ugly fence was in full bloom, but not quite rambling where I wanted them to go!