Sitka or Bust: Commute The World

For the past week, I’ve been noticing an ungodly amount of rats running around the grounds of my apartment. And by ungodly I mean a ton. Granted, I don’t want to see any rats so even one would’ve been one too many. Every time I walked Grimm I would see one in the same spot, between two AC units, basically frolicking. Then, on the weekend I constantly saw one running past my opened screen door which worried me a little considering how much time I spend with it that way so Grimm can go on the porch.

The last straw was finding a rat stuck in one of those sticky traps, put out by one of my neighbors. It was squeaking and thrashing, just pitiful. Not a humane way to go at all. I called my complex to report it, and the epidemic plaguing us all. I got a voicemail pretty quickly and knew they were gonna do something. They already had feelers out for mice and skunk related issues, but had apparently not heard of the rats.

The first day they put out six live traps surrounding my porch and three at my next door neighbors. I began to think that everyone would assume I was some sort of dirty hoarder bringing the rats in, based purely on the outside response. Also, with my usual luck, now that I’d reported a rat problem the rats would most likely disappear and no one would believe they’d ever been there.

The next morning we’d caught one so I was off the hook.

I happened to be outside when they were checking traps and I pointed them to the real ground zero of rats a hundred feet away. That specific corner was also a mecca for skunks around the 4am mark. I figured it wouldn’t be too long before a skunk got in one of the traps and made a big mess for all involved. And I was right.

“Oh boy, we got a skunk,” he said. The phrasing itself suggests happiness, excitement even. It didn’t sound that way though. In fact, it was said most unenthusiastically. Of course, I paused my TV after hearing it and I quickly leashed up Grimm to make my snooping less obvious. We sauntered out and at the far end of the complex I saw two office workers loitering on the outskirts, partially obscured by a tree. They were backed a comfortable distance from a young guy with one of those old lady grabber sticks for reaching stuff in high cabinets. I imagine they didn’t want to get sprayed. Understandable.