Yesterday I had a visit from the town manager (with police backup in case I needed to be subdued, I guess). The reason was to tell me, as if I didn't know, that there are rats living in the abandoned garage behind my house. Of course I was aware of them since they join the chickens for every meal. It's true that they aren't particularly welcome additions to my menagerie, but I really didn't know how to handle the situation. I would never kill any animal, not even a rat, but my live and let live attitude seems to have offended my neighbors. I know that even those who love animals usually don't include rodents in their acceptance of nature sharing their property.
I rent this house from an extremely absentee and neglectful landlady. This has always suited me perfectly since she requires nothing from me but a very small rent payment. Neither does she take much interest in maintaining the property. Until the roof had to be replaced last year I hadn't seen her for years. The arrangement suits me perfectly. She has no rules or regulations and I treat the place as if it were my own. Now, though, the police are holding her responsible for ridding the neighborhood of rodents. I have no realistic objection to this, but apparently my neighbors and the long arm of the law expected an argument from me. Once they realized that I was fully cooperative and good-humored about the situation, a fairly good time was had by all. I would have appreciated my neighbors confronting my landlord directly, or at least asking me to do it, but amazingly people seem to always expect trouble when they complain. Since I was cheerful and cooperative, the situation was handled as cooperatively as could be expected. I called the landlady (in California) and exterminators will be here shortly (so she says). I apologized to the rats this morning, and warned them, but I'm afraid they are doomed. It will certainly save me money on chicken feed.
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