Rats

So the other night Al whispered through the window to come outside. I jumped up from bed with a last longing stare at my book, and raced outside. Walking over to him, he pointed out a barn owl up in the tree in the yard. It was enormous, and so regal as it stared down at us. Unflinching it stretched out its wings and glanced around on the ground for its next easy feed. A blur of white it glided away out of sight and we walked together to look up at the stars. They stretched endlessly across the sky, instantly putting us back in our place as tiny humans. I stared in awe, then remembered I was in bare feet. 'I feel like the rats are going to nibble on my toes,' I said to Al. 'Nah, theres none about.' He replied confidently. He swung the torch around. At every beam of light, in every direction, there were multiple dark scurrying shapes across the lawn, some within a metre from us. I bravely jumped up on Als feet, stared around, then bolted for the door, slamming it firmly closed behind me. I thought about locking it, but made myself stop. Al was still out there after all!

We decided to get a trap going, we have caught over 150 in 3 nights trapping. We were going camping this week but then I remembered the rats, and thought about the kids in swags....Bugger that.