Hey fellas.. nothing much happen to me this past few days except one interesting incident that took place about a week ago. Medan was suddenly raining in the middle of the day (well, almost towards evening) and I was almost snoozing off in the main room (located on the 2nd floor). Suddenly, I heard my mom yelling from the first floor about something. She was supposed to be going out with grandma for her check-up at the doctor clinic. Since I reckon she was calling me or janice for something I quickly came out from the room. Out of the blue, I saw a rat running right up from the stair and before I could block it (to direct him/her to go back downstairs) the rat has already dashed into my room. Luckily we now usually only sleep in the main room (setting our individual mattresses down every evening) in order to conserve the usage of air-con. I was supposed to be checking the rat out after closing all the doors in the 2nd floor so that it won't sneak into anymore rooms, but as I was about to go into my room for the inspection suddenly my heart jump!! What's wrong roy? I thought it is only one harmless rat? But somehow, at the thought of having the rat running near me gives me the creep. I just felt irritated. But I embraced myself to check out the room, making sure the electronics are stored, closed the toilet window, and open up the glass door to the back of my room (hopefully the rat would run there). Mom instructed that we would deal with it after she comes back. I noticed the rat was hiding among the cardboards near the door to my room and carefully closed it.
Janice suggested we filled up a pail with water and leave it as a trap, because previously there were also couple of rats spotted in our house when all of us has been away for too long and one of the rat went into the pail with water, got stuck, and sank in it. So, when mom reached home we ready ourselves to venture into my room again. One carrying an umbrella, one with plastic toy golf stick, and another one (me) with a broom (this must be the safest weapon for defending myself). We went in, I jumped up onto my bed, then walked on top of the tables (so.. this is what it feels like to play "the floor is a lava"). We looked high and low but the rat seems to be hiding somewhere that is difficult to reach. Janice reckon it was hiding underneath the wooden-framed bed (hard to explain but my bed in Medan was designed a bit complicated to the point I could not see what's underneath it unless I remove the mattress and the wooden panels). We saw heaps of rat's poo-poo in the room (one on my bed, on the floor, underneath the table, on top of the table) as if he/she wants to mark the territory (or know that it's end is near). FYI: the poo-poo looks like one of those sprinkled chocolates you usually have with ice-cream or bread (or maybe the ones that comes with cakes). Mom clears up most of the stuff in the room, removing any items that might give the rat a chance to hide. We ended up leaving a pail of bucket (with 1/4th filled with water) at the outside/back of my room. Closed the door and leave the rat be.
Lo and behold, the rat fell into the trap. I was not aware of it earlier when I came into the room and moves around with loud noise towards my bathroom (they are 'supposed' to be hiding from us). After taking a morning shower and as I was about to leave the room I checked the pail and was glad to know that it was stuck inside there. The rat was quite small and because of the steepness of the pail on the inside it could not come out. It was there the whole day, tucking it's head out (taking a bath, finally) until about evening time. We had a brief zoo session with our auntie and cousins that drop by at our house that day. In the evening I checked the pail and found that it was floating already. I was sad (why should I be sad? weren't you the one feeling troubled by it's arrival?). It got me thinking. I used to have as a pet a guinea-pig. Why then should I be afraid of the rat? How about you guys? What do you feel when you see a rat? anything else that you are scared of? Hopefully the tips about making a trap out of a pail might be useful for you readers in the future. 'Til then, ciaoo and take care. love, roy.
