The Incident of the Rat

For days, when I have been getting up so early to catch the school bus, around 5:30am, I have heard a strange rustling sound as I walked into the kitchen each morning.  The noise would stop as soon as it started, so I was never able to pinpoint it.  I looked carefully in our food cupboard for signs of infestation but never found evidence of any.

After I went to work, Sue opened this extra cupboard above our stove's vent hood and was so startled to see two beady little eyes staring back at her.  She screamed at the top of her lungs and the boys came running.  The rat quickly vacated out the ventilation tube.

Here's the tube he likes to come in and out of.  They don't bother to screen the opening to the outside of the building so any varmints can get in there!

Some rat family made quite a little nest in there.  Yech!

Peter and Jack were not grossed out in the least however, as the rat brought fond memories of their long ago pets, Tickles and Speedy.  We called our waiban and she really doesn't know what to do about it, but hopefully she's on the case!  We have blocked the vent off the best we can for now; hopefully we will be able to keep it away from our latest shipment of Clif bars (Thanks Linda!)

Sue and the kids also found some Christmas decorations today so now we have our own little tree and lights, which we have strung around our inoperable air conditioner/heater unit.  Merry Christmas!

My classroom today was very cold - when the students come in they open all of the windows - even though it's 40 degrees outside.  They think it's healthier to be cold and have fresh air, then to have warmer, stagnant air in there.  I couldn't agree less!  I taught today in 3 layers plus my winter coat, and enjoyed the heat coming off of the classroom computer.