A rat is a rat is only a rat..

For two days now I have halted all the restoration- and interior decoration activities on the old house and picked up my paint brushes instead. I need to do that once in a while to be able to breathe properly..This is an oil painting I call "Shedding some light" - the very first I made in this house where I intend to fix myself a great studio with all my painting gear later on.. First, one has to focus on getting bedrooms, kitchen and living room the in order.
And to get all the rats out of the basement!
When I first moved in here I was a bit taken by all the strange sounds in the night. "Maybe it were the spirits of all the souls that once lived here who wanted to check out the new owner" I thought and pulled the pillow over my head. But rats they were, simply and plainly, and they all lived downstairs in my cellar connected to my entire house through an intricate system of rat channels.
Ok. I kind of like rats and mice knowing them as intelligent animals i e: I don´t jump on chairs and scream when I spot them - but this was going to far! They even muched the labels of my empty wine bottles being hungry and obviously had a habit of sharpening their long teeth on my plumming pipes. Enough is enough! And I called in the professionals to do the extinguishing job. With a bit of a heavy heart.
"No poison - set traps I said..."
And efficient they were. We caught the first rat yesteday and threw him into the nature. Glossy peppercorn eyes was staring at me. And big it was. And dead, departed and deceased. Its long tail rigor-mortis-erect and stale like a pencil waiting for the sharpener..
I must say I dread a little to decend into the old basement for some time to come. But it is here I keep my washing machine. So I have to face this for a while more. It was estimated that the amount of rodents might be 20. Or 200! explains the Anticimex guy! (The house has been empty for over a year and they really had time of their lives to make themselves at home..) Oh noooo...
However: One the other hand: In Africa in my various homes, I once in a while had snakes in the loo at night (imagine having a hang-over and entering the bathroom in the wee hours looking for an aspirine and discover a couple of snakes intertwined on the mirror shelf - thus multiplying "the snake numbers" in the mirror and in the eye of the heavy headed beholder..) and an occational scorpion thrieving in the bath tub. So..what´s the big deal!
A rat is only a rat..
After all.