Panic Attack

Dear Readers

This is another episode in this reality show called "My Life". Please don't just enjoy reading, but offer your advice as requested in the last paragraph


Last night (April 18th), around 1am I was somewhere midway between dreaming and reality… u know how it is at times. Truth is since thieves broke into my house, I sleep with my lights on cos at times I have a creepy feeling someone is in my room. Had that feeling yesterday but couldn’t get up. Forced myself and when I finally succeeded to wake up, I heard a sound like someone hitting my door with a hammer. Ok, I know I can get dramatic at times, but this sounded so real. I got up slowly from bed and was thinking at 200words/sec… why should thieves come to my house the 2nd time in less than 2months, and in a fairly secure neighbourhood?


Well, got up quietly, picked up my phone which lights up for less than a sec, so couldn’t quite help, and tiptoed to the door of my room. I was in a state of panic by then, and I told myself if I have to go down, at least let me try scaring them away first (my thought was they were still outside trying to break in). Just for the record, there was no light and the night was as still as death.


I opened my door, the noise sounded closer. I realised it was coming from my dining table which is about 1.5m from my door. Then as I flashed the light from my phone, I heard a thud as something jumped on the floor. I noticed the table was in disarray, the wine glasses were all over the place, a bottle of peanut had fallen and the lid was off, papers were scattered everywhere, flower vase pushed down as well… and then it dawned on me! It was a rat! (really that is not a mouse). Before I knew it, I had screamed "Lord of Mercy!"

This rat is in the family of those which live in gutters and drainage cannals around the compound. I noticed one in my house less than two months ago and it has made me to be prudent. In fact I can’t leave food (cooked or uncooked) open and unsupervised, not even for 5mins. This rat has found its niche in my bath tub, through a hole that was blocked with wood. It ate the wood and allowed itself space to go inside the tub (you know like the space between the tub and the floor) and out as it pleases.

Ok, back to the attack. So shocked at the disorder, I still needed to convince myself it was the rat and not a human intruder. So I went and checked my doors, and they were intact. I arranged the things on the table, took the bottle of peanut to my room (I am even scared it will follow this to my bedroom, so today I will put the bottle in my kitchen cabinet), went and closed the door of the bath thinking the rat had gone back to its hiding place.

I returned to my room, still panicky so I could not sleep. With a candle, I was playing cards alone on the bed for more than one hour. I heard screeching sounds outside and I guessed the rat was trying to get out of the bath. I went out and you won’t believe what the rat had done to the door of the bath. When I closed the door, the rat wasn’t in the bath as I suspected. So when it wanted to return to its niche and noticed the door locked, it started chewing on the wood. It had peeled out a whole portion of the door before I got there. Guess what I did? I opened the door so it can go through quietly.

When I called my hubby this morning and narrated what happened, he told me the sweetest thing anyone has told me in a long long time. He said "Baby, I admire your courage". It sounded so sweet that I didn’t want to probe, in case that was sarcasm to mean "how did you think you could confront thieves with a phone?" ha ha! Really, what was I thinking? But I know Xav, he meant it.

But hey, I need more than courage to go through this. That rat has to go! How?
I need advice on how to get rid of that hideous creature that I dread and fear, and that is terrorising me!

Just for the record, I tried poisoning it but it didn't even sniff the stuff. I am looking for a stronger poison, i.e. if I can find.