PITA

So whats a girl to do when she has "something alive" in the wall between the garage and the house. Then that something "alive" chews a hole big enough for her sheltie to stick her head in and growl. Especially when that hole in the wall is coming into the house (the hole was in the back of the cabinet where I keep the dog food - coincidence? I think NOT!).

I can't even say the word, "Rat." Just spelling it in the blog gives me the creeps.

The hole scared me. The scratching irritated me, the hole really scared me. I kept thinking of stories people told me of walking down the dark hall and having a big sewer rat chase them.

Wild West Exterminators to the rescue.

So Keith comes out. He is tired. He's been crawling in places people shouldn't have to crawl all day. He is not a man that wants to crawl anymore today. But, he is a nice guy and is willing to help me out due to the panicked nature of my phone call.

I bring him in the garage and show him where "something" has chewed on the drywall. He examines the area like a crime scene. I half expect him to get some tape out and protect the area. Then he says, "OK, what else?" I ask, "what do you think?" and he just shrugs. The man is not giving anything away.

I bring him into the house and show him the hole. I had put clear tape on it hoping to keep the "something alive" out of the house. He looks perplexed. Gets down on his knees and looks in the hole. I say, "Isn't that hole rather large for a rat?" He says, "Maybe, huh, don't know."

So up the stairs we go to the attic. I'm happy because our attics are easy to get into. Just open the door and walk right in. I can tell Keith is happy about that as well.

He walks around the first attic and finds a little pile of "droppings." It is actually poop, but he is a nice man and doesn't want me to go into a panic again so he calls it "droppings". He says, "To tell you the truth, I'm not really impressed. You don't have a major problem." Then he says, "Let's look at the other one (attic)."

Off we go to the other side of the house. No "droppings" at all on that side - clean as a whistle he says.

So I say, "what do you think we should do." He says, "Well I don't think you should waste $170 on me putting traps out." he then said, "You can go to home depot and get some traps and catch it (yes he did say "it") yourself."

He then says, "I think you have a squirrel. It might even be gone. You've got something, I'm not really sure what it is, but you do like I say and put the traps out. You'll get it."

So we named the squirrel PITA (Pain in the A@@).

As we walk out to his truck, I say, "Well thank you for coming out. What do I owe you?" He says, "It's not a problem mam, I don't live very far and I didn't really do anything." I am FLOORED! In this shitty economy, someone comes out after a long day and helps me out but doesn't charge me anything. I will make sure Keith gets all my business in the future AND I will make sure my friends and family use him. Oh Thank you Keith!

Keith, he gets a gold star!