Rats
Several rats visited us this week. A few were animal, some were human. The animal rat visit wasn't much of a surprise since we have an ongoing battle with the rat population trying to move in. We haven't had one in months, but that didn't stop me from awakening in the middle of the night from the tell-tale noises in the kitchen. Can't say what initial sound woke me up, but once awake I heard a pill bottle knocked over and I knew for sure that the noises weren't from a tree roach (another frequent invader this year.) I set up the awesome electrocution rat trap that we have but knew it would take a few days since it's best to set it out turned off at first so they get used to it.

The next day, I heard rat noises in the kitchen during the middle of the day and knew this was no normal cautious rat, sneaking about only at night. I went into the kitchen and discovered it was a huge one and quite brazen though it did scurry behind the stove once it saw me and then made angry chattering noises at me. Bastard. About an hour later he was back out again and I considered grabbing the pellet gun and just shooting him, a rat killing method we used prior to the remodel. But then I remembered the collateral damage and just reached down and activated the trap. Sure enough he was dead in the trap the next morning and by the way, we've discovered the best bait is flour tortillas. Based on our experience where there's one rat, there's always at least one more since they always seem to come in a group so we left the trap set and a second one met their demise today.

The human rat comes in the form of credit card fraud. There was a charge on my card that I didn't make. The statement showed SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT for a charge of $9.55. I check my transactions daily so I caught this while it was still pending and in the past, when this has happened my bank has reversed the charge before it was even posted with no further action needed on our part. Not so this time. I had to wait until it was posted and then request a dispute. I spent an hour on the phone going through convoluted menus systems before I got to a live person who then transferred me to another live person that insisted I needed a fax machine to get the damn dispute form. Really? Do most people have fax machines at home these days? I don't even have a phone line, much less a fax machine. I requested they email the form to me and she said she could do that, but I have yet to receive it. Which is a bit of problem since I supposedly only have 72 hours to complete the form and return it. I think tomorrow I will be calling them back and just for grins I will request a supervisor. Because, dammit, since I have to take these kinds of calls at work all the time, it's a good opportunity for me to have the shoe on the other foot.