I realised this morning that the rats are probably coming into the house from the outside - and after some detective work identified a part of the garden that looked likely - it's at the back and my neighbour behind's shed butts onto the fence. It's where the dogs bark at nothing - so this looks like my cause - I've found evidence that rats live under the shed so I'm going to dig it out from this side and fill with hardcore - then poison underneath.
Out of courtesy, I thought I should go and tell them that I'm putting poison in what is technically their garden. There are children in that house, including the girl who screams naked from the bathroom window.
The house is actually quite smart from the outside. The woman opened the door - she was small, whey faced and malnourished looking - her hair and face the same as the skin on a sago pudding. There is a certain class of person who assumes you are accusing them of something when you speak to them - and as soon as they realise you are not - accuses you of something. To be fair, she was about 5'4" and I'm 6'3" and a bit big. I've been told before that I look intimidating and she did, frankly, look scared. Actually I thought she was just going to scream 'YOU AIN'T TAKING MY FECKING KIDS" and slam the door before I could speak.
I made a point of being friendly and talking really quietly - It took her a couple of minutes to understand what I was saying and she obviously relaxed when she realised that I wasn't accusing her of anything - at first she feigned horror - then later admitted that her cats had been bringing in dead rats all week. About 3 mins into the conversation a man came out of the front room into the hall - he was about the same age - roughly 28ish - and from his colour not the father of the two children she has - but potentially the one she was obviously carrying. He was nice enough, good looking and fairly uremarkable - there was a white van parked outside that was probably his. I had to explain everything again and he seemed OK about it - as soon as he appeared - he took over and she receded into the hall, this being 'mans' work He also did something that I found really uncomfortable - subconciously he placed himself in front of her, between us - and kept moving forward to push me away from the house in a very territorial way. I don't think he realised he was doing it - but it wound me up.
The main point of going over there was to make sure she knew what I was doing - and kept an eye open for dead rats or poison, having kids and cats it was the only decent thing to do. I actually ended up appologising to her for something I hadn't done - when I should have just said 'you have rats in your fucking garden - sort it out'
She also said - 'get the caaarncil to sort it - it's free' in a dismissive way that made me annoyed that people are never interested in solving their own problems - just getting the caaarncil to take care of it for them.
I bought poison and a rat trap. I have no idea how it works - and there are no instructions.
2 comments:
When George Osborne's had his way, there won't be no fackin' caahncil anyway, so I'm sure he'd approve of your private enterprise.
to be fair, the house is very smart and well maintained and I felt a tad guilty in being so snobby about them - but that's exactly what happened, and whilst it was all perfectly civil - it felt quite a 'cold' encounter. Our houses adjoin each other via the garden and yet I'm quite sure that if she saw me on the street now she wouldn't recognise me - besides, most people never walk further than the front door to the car parked on their hard standing - so neighbours are irrelevant.
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