Attack of the Rats!!!!

I HATE spiders, I HATE snakes and I HATE RATS!!! I don't care what purpose they may or may not serve, I simply do not like them Sam I am!

A couple of days ago, we received a notice in the mail of a hearing set for a builder who wants to construct two commercial structures directly behind our home. The hearing is this coming Thursday, however, they have already mowed and cleared the land down to dirt and have placed gas lines back there. The problem with all of this is that when they cleared the land, they removed natural habitat for a colony of field rats...and trust me...these are no country mice. Granted, they are not exactly sewer rats...but their rats just the same.

With no habitat left in tact, these rats are scouring the neighborhood for places to live before winter. This is like a bad horror movie because they are absolutely everywhere. A bunch of us neighbor's got together and decided we would get a ton of poison and traps and we were going to get the little buggers. My redneck hubs decides that putting out the poison is great and all, but nothing finishes this like a .22. So hubs and my neighbor 'P' get together like two over grown 7 year old's; one armed with a rifle and the other with 'the claw'...you know the gardening tool from the TV infomercials. HILARIOUS!

Our other neighbors dog has killed 17 to date already and our neighbor across the street has gotten 9. Our other neighbor five houses down has three dogs and between them they've caught 11. We've gotten 6 so far and 'P' has gotten 7. Do you see how crazy this is? That's a ton of rats. You should see them at night...simply horrible. I didn't want to get out of my car when we got home last night because they were running everywhere. I make hubs stand out side and make noise before I go in or out of the house.

Needless to say, we plan on calling the city tomorrow and the HOA and hopefully we can work together to get this fixed. There are so many animals and children in our neighborhood and these things carry diseases. It really worries me. Anyway, I just had to share this horrible happening with ya'll. Uck...talk about the heebie jeebies!