Visitors, both Welcome and Unwelcome

It's been a wonderful week-end, albeit very full.  Much of Saturday was taken up with the training session/faculty meeting at the college where I adjunct--and then my spouse's dad and step-mom arrived.  I went to a wonderful quilt group gathering yesterday, while my spouse and his dad and step-mom went to church.

I've had many occasions to reflect on how lucky I am that I have these people as in-laws.  This week-end was one of those times.

We had been hearing noises in the attic on Saturday night--and off and on for the past week.  Happily, my in-laws were not freaked out.  Instead, they shared their stories of squirrels coming down the fireplace, birds pecking out the side of the house, a rat story or two.

Yesterday, my spouse and his father went up to the attic to see if they could find the source of the banging--clearly a creature was up there.  We'd had traps set all week, because of the skittering noise, but had caught nothing.  Until Saturday night's noises, we thought we had the problem solved or that it was a different problem, like something on the roof.  But the noises throughout Saturday night and Sunday morning made it clear that the problem in the attic might be even bigger--maybe a raccoon up there.

Stop reading now if you're squeamish.

Sunday afternoon, my spouse found a trap with a not-dead-yet rat in it.  It's been quiet since he took care of it.  I'm hopeful that we've solved the problem for now.

We live in an urban area--I've been amazed with how much of a struggle we have to keep creatures out of our houses down here.

But I digress. 

 

I feel bad, since those traps are supposed to be instant kill, and I'm not sure what happened.  Much as I don't like rats and I don't want them in the attic, I don't want them to suffer all night.

 

My father-in-law and step-mom-in-law have been very laid back about it all.  Some would have left shrieking in horror.  They helped us solve the problem--or, to be more accurate, we all stood by my spouse (literally in the case of my father-in-law, metaphorically in the case of us women-folk, who stayed outside), while he solved the problem.

 

And then we walked to the beach, where it was very crowded, and we walked back and played a round of Euchre. We had burgers for dinner, and watched some TV.  And I went to bed very early, because I hadn't gotten much sleep.

 

They are here for a few more days.  Hopefully, we're done with the rodent control part of the visit!