Ciao chaps and chapettes

We’re back in sunny Italy and it’s lovely. The weather back home in the UK has been rather cold and wet and windy since June and it’s nice to be somewhere where you don’t have to turn the heating on in August.  And the sunshine is what has stopped us going mad the last few days, you see, we’ve got an unwelcome visitor going by the name of Rattie.

It started about a week ago when we noticed that somebody had been nibbling the tomatoes and fruit that was out on the table and left droppings on the floor and surfaces. As soon as we’d ruled out my visiting father and sister in law as the culprits, we started googling rodent signs and droppings and I’m none too pleased to announce that I am now quite well versed on the subject. Turns out we have a rat. We tried in vain to find any signs that would counteract the evidence because a rat in the house is a nightmare. He leaves a trail of poop as he wanders around the house in the night (including my husbands bedside table, inches away from his face usch) and eats… wait for it…. apple scented Ikea candles!!!

We looked everywhere to find where he was living, we took the kitchen units apart and there, behind the built in oven, we found a teatowel (again, Ikea and a bit of a fire hazard behind the oven) that I’d only put out the day before together with a huge number of droppings but no rat. Later on, in the evening, my husbands thoughts went to our sofas; they are sofa beds and are hollow in the middle and in the first one we found old signs of mice (nice) and then, as we pulled back the top of the other one, there he was, a huge rat. It was almost like seeing a ghost because up until that moment I had kind of hoped that whatever it was, had left. Oh my goodness, he jumped out and with our brooms we tried to push him out the open front door but he wouldn’t go. He jumped around and we tried to shoo him out and in the end he came careering towards me, I screamed (as would you, I promise) and ran down the stairs to the kitchen and that was apparently where he was heading too. Side by side we raced into the kitchen, me hoping he wouldn’t bite or that I would trample him and I’m sure he was just as scared. Anyway, he disappeared behind the kitchen cabinets and we spent the night sleeping in the upper part of the house. As I’m typing this, he is hiding behind a kitchen cupboard (we looked and saw him sitting there), hopefully munching on poison, and I’m in the garden, only popping into the kitchen if I have to. Hubby is quite happily sitting at the table in there, working, only a meter or so away from him.

It’ll be another night upstairs methinks and I’ll update when either he dies or we call in the Ratbusters 🙂

This blog was supposed to be about the Furlo Gorge and Piobbico, both beautiful places here in Le Marche that we’ve visited quite a few times now, but somehow, Rattie takes up most of my thoughts at the moment. However will I concentrate on my story writing now? Gotta laugh though, and wonder what this gorgeous mountain house of ours will throw at us next.

Ttfn

xx