From bad to WORSE? Frying pan to FIRE??

So, we had the Truly Nolen man out today, because I heard noises in the walls of Daniel's room the other morning. Sunday morning, to be exact. The man goes up into our attic and immediately I hear, "WHOA!" And he pops his head down and says "you're not gonna like this." Because, of course, I'd already regaled him with stories of the great mouse infestation of 2005 at our last house. So I say "oh yeah?" And he just shakes his head and continues on. A few minutes and here he comes. "Well, Mrs. Newberry, I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that you do not have a mouse problem." Then, before I can feel relief (keeping in the back of my mind that he said I wouldn't like what he was going to say), he says, "nope, what you've got is ROOF RATS." My jaw literally dropped. "R-r-rats?" Oh my gosh. You have got to be kidding me. The worst part? "Yep, you've got them and there's a fresh one up there that must have gotten into some of that poison that's been laid out. I'm going to go back up and fish him out...believe me you don't want to deal with that smell." I just nod stupidly and hand him two grocery sacks like he asked. He tells me something about once he's done getting the carcass (EEK!!) down he's going to walk the perimeter of our house to determine how they were getting in. I just nod again.

So, here's the deal....we have roof rats and apparently they're super common on this street. The beautiful 2 story house two houses down just had this same guy out for the same problem. Apparently they like our neighborhood. And they REALLY like our house. "There are literally thousands of droppings in your attic...fresh, new, you name it." And since rats are ferociously territorial, he thinks it's likely a family system. So, I throw out a feeble joke "great we've got Rat Corleone and his 'family' living in our attic." He gives a hearty laugh and a sympathetic look. The good news is : we can do something about it. And we are. But the thought of rats in my attic....he said the good thing is that unless they've chewed a hole into the interior of the house, they'll have no interest in coming into the house itself. Great. That's comforting. The other "good" news? The one that was dead was a small one, all in all (with tail) only 18 or 19 inches long!!! That's the size of a NEWBORN.

Fuggedabowdit.