Have you seen this man?
We have rodents. We noticed them not long after we moved in. When we're in the bedroom at night, we can hear pitter-patter of little feet in the cieling above us. From time to time, a little rustling, scratching, chewing. I think there's only a couple of mice, maybe a family. The dad actually infiltrated our apartment a month ago. Cute little guy, small enough to fit in a tablespoon measure. However, we've blocked all of his entrances, so he has been here for a long time. I don't mind him coming for a visit once in a while, but Kristen feels a little differently about it. The first time he came for a visit was one day when Kristen had been sitting on the couch reading. I came home a few hours later and found her tucked all the way into the couch with all the lights on in the house. "We have a mouse." Twenty minutes later he came running out of the kitchen and disappeared into a hole in the floor.

A mouse or two is OK with me. Rats are a different story. The first time we heard the noise up in the cieling was a few weeks after we moved in. We were woken up in the middle of the night by what sounded like a stampede. It was very surreal and I wasn't sure it was actually happening at first, but then I realized Kristen had been woken up by it too. I don't know where that many critters came from or where they were going, but our bedroom cieling seems to be a hot-bed of activity. Usually it's just the sound of our mice's little tiny feet running around, kind of an endearing sound. But then once or twice a night there is the sound of something larger. Something it sounds like they are moving around rodent furniture or wrestling with each other. Last night it sounded like there was a hot pursuit going on. I imagine this turf-war going on up there between the mice and the rats. Sort of a West Side Story re-enactment... with rodents. Unfortunately, I think we'll have to cancel the show pretty soon by notifying our landlord. Kind of a shame... they've gotten that "We Want To Live In America" number down pat!

-RP-