So, I'm awaken in the middle of the night by loud repeated squeeking coming from the living room.
I'm like "urgh, cats brought a shrew again". Can't ignore it, too noisy — it retrospect it didn't really sound like the usual squeeks of a shrew (yes, this is a common enough occurence that I can tell), but I was half-awake so I didn't pay attention.
So I guess it's time to initiate "rescue & release" procedure, at 5 am, thanks cats.
I go to the living room, and then, a unusual sight: all three cats are assembled around a bookshelf, carefully watching it. That's weird, they're used to shrews, generally it doesn't generate that much interest from all three cats simultaneously.
So I look under the bookshelf.
"It's a rat."
"Gosh hecking darn it cats!"
Ok so whatever, it's just a mouse-of-unusual-size, procedure is the same. I get salad bowl, piece of newspaper, probing stick, and prepare to initiate capture. Just as I kneel before the bookshelf however, the rat decides to burst out. Ends up chased all across the living room by the three cats, living football style, and eventually finishes stranded at the base of a flight of stair leading to the cellar [a surprisingly common place for rodents and other tiny furry beasts to get stranded, many alive and dead were found in this this place in the past].
Ok, so that actually makes my work easier. I manage to put the salad bowl over the rat, then the newspaper under. Except the rat is too heavy, and whenever I trick to pick the whole thing up, it weighs down on the paper and slips out, not good.
So after a bit of thinking, I get a tray from the kitchen. I put the tray next to the rat, manage to probe it to go on the tray, put the salad bowl on and then FINALLY I can carry it outside and release it safely [and then do some clean up because that rat sure wasn't house-trained].
Gosh hecking darn it, cats.
