We discovered that we had a rat living in our apartment last week, after finding half-eaten bananas (peel and all!) on top of our refrigerator. I was a little concerned because the rats that I have seen so far (outside of one of our offices) were probably the inspiration for the R.O.U.S.es in The Princess Bride. Seriously, they are at least as big as a good-sized cat...and I definitely did not want to think about where something that size was hiding in our apartment.
Anyway, Ralph and I came home from a lo-ong day of shopping and decided to watch one of our (newly purchased!) movies. As we were sorting through, trying to decide which one to watch, a rat comes scurrying out of the kitchen, jumps on the window screen and hides behind the curtain. (Luckily, he (she?) seems to be pretty normal-sized!) Ralph and I jump up and decide we're going to chase him out onto the balcony. Armed with a broom and a mop, at first we only succeed in chasing him back & forth between the curtains. Finally, he takes a leap and runs...no, not outside, but back in the kitchen. Sigh...the chase continues through the laundry baskets, under the washing machine and behind the fridge...all to have him end up on the screen again. We hastily blocked off the kitchen with the ironing board. During this process, Ralph intelligently shut and latched the door to his bedroom, but I merely shut mine, so our next leg of the chase took us into and around my room. Finally, though, we managed to herd him outside. We shut the balcony door firmly then sat down and had a good laugh at the whole proceeding.
We selected and began to watch the movie we abandoned earlier. About 10 minutes into the movie, a rat comes running out of the kitchen, jumps on the window screen and hides behind the curtain. Ralph and I look at each other, wondering if we are experiencing deja-vu. However, we quickly ascertain that, no, this is a
second rat, who is slightly larger than the last one. Luckily we are now pros at this. We opened the balcony door, sealed off the kitchen, latched the bedroom doors, picked up our 'weapons', and had the second rat out the door in less than half the time it took to get the first one out. Again, we close the balcony door and broke into peals of laughter at the whole experience.
As we started the movie once again, I know I was wondering how many more times we were going to have to repeat the procedure. Luckily, though, we were able to make it through the rest of the movie without any further rodent interruptions!
In an 
