For the weak in stomach...don't read this entry! This picture is close to the rat that decided to visit my apartment for a few days last week. This is my story that just had to be documented.

The first time I clearly knew there was a rat in my apartment was Thursday night while I was doing dishes. Something ran behind me into the oven. When I opened the door, the rat was looking at me. I did freak out...its a rat...in my apartment what would you do?

I quickly turned on the oven, he ran out into the living room where I proceeded to beat the furniture to scare him out - but what I was going to do with him when I did get him in the open was still a mystery.

Anyway, the beatings continued until he was back in the oven but this time I was ready for him to race out. Ready with broom, he darted towards me and crossed my foot to pass me. Gross! He actually touched me! That touch created a reaction to fling him off...which lead to me kicking something...which lead to a hurt and bloody toe as I continued to chase this rat from hell out of my apartment. Can you see where this is leading?

At one point, I catnapped one of the cats over at the Centre (Bonnie) in hopes she would solve my problem quickly. Unfortunately, she never leaves the Centre and was in shock that she was out of her familiar place. She hid behind the couch and cried ...some rat catcher!

For the next hour, I chased the rat until I gave up. Leaving him in the spare room, I closed the door and left some rat poison and sticky traps. And just for a laugh, know that the rat was bigger than the sticky traps and strong enough to carry off the rat poison easily. He did eat some poison but you forget, this is a rat from hell and poison doesn't work on those.

This same night, I slept in my bed room convicted that the rat was trapped in the other room and could not get out. Still not at ease, I did fall asleep around 11pm. At 11:05pm the rat knocked over a large picture frame on my bedroom window sill, which woke me up. I sat straight up and watched it run across my window sill towards me. At the end of the sill and with no where to go, he proceeded to bend his knees in a way that made him look like he was going to jump a river...aka the distance from the sill to my bed!

At this point, I did scream and flap my sheet to keep him from thinking he would get away with jumping on me. He dropped to the floor and went wherever. At this point, there was no way I was going to go back to sleep. I crashed at friend's place.

For the next three days, this continued. Seeing rat run across the floor, chase with broom, catnapping the cat (even trying different cats), and laying out poison but to no use.

Sunday morning, after chasing the rat out of the house and watching it run from my apartment across the power line to the box, then across another powerline to the next apartment building, and down a pipe into a large wooden box attacted to the building. My neighbor told me of how it also tried to get into his place by eating a hole in the window screen. His wife saw this and gave it a good wack. I checked out my screens and sure enough, that's how he got in and out. I was happy just to know it wasn't living in my apartment!

Now I am rat free due to the fact that every window is closed in my place but two that I check for signs of entry twice a day.

There is always a lesson that the Lord teaches us in the tough times. This one was one of dependence. Dependence on strength while sleep was taken from me, dependence on others in the body when my apartment was taken from me, and even for healthy food since there was no way I was going to use that oven!

God is good...I just wished that I'd listen better to Him when He tells me to do something, then maybe He won't need to use a "rat from hell" to bring me to my knees.