Rodents BEWARE! There's a new cat in town!

****Scritch scratch. Scritch scratch. ****
"Brandon, what is that?"
"I think it's Gil in his cage."
"Nope, he's not in his cage."
"Huh." (moves the couch and the kennel out of the way)
****Scritch scratch. Scritch scratch.****
"Ok," he says. "I guess I have to go check it out."

Turns out a rat had decided that getting up into our walls would be a good place to hunker down this winter. Luckily, he had barely scratched through. That night, at 10pm, Brandon donned his rain gear, goggles and a gas mask and went under the house to find out what was going on.

We had looked at an ad on Craigslist a year or more ago about taking in feral cats. See, our resident killer, Jezebel, had decided to retire and the rats and mice took notice. But then life got in the way, and we really didn't see many mice around, so we put it off. That night, I sent an email.

Today, we got our first kitty. (We have 3 more on the way.) We haven't gotten to see her yet. She is thoroughly burrowed in her hidey-hole. She has a great story though. Apparently a guy that worked at Kimberly Clark found her, trapped her, had her fixed, let her go and then continued to feed her for two years. In case you didn't know, Kimberly Clark is closing the mill in Everett and nearly 1,000 people have lost their jobs. In any event, he happened to trap her the same day he was officially laid off. And now she's at our house. We are very excited to have her. (I planned to post a picture but she is very shy)

Just as a note, the ladies we have been dealing with through the rescue are AMAZING! They have been so helpful and undemanding of us. They are very kind and will bend over backwards to make the rehoming of the ferals work. We are so pleased with them.

Today I drove by a man holding a sign that said, "Homeless. Need help." And I thought, "I've already helped someone find a home today. I think I'm good." Now I know that helping kitties is not exactly the same but I still feel good that we are helping some cats who may have otherwise not made it AND I'm hoping they will feast on our rat and mouse populations!

Happy hunting!