Reminds me of when we lived in Hawaii on Hickam AFB in base housing. It was Christmas time and my next door neighbor called one morning to ask for my help – she had a rat running around her living room!

We chased it around the room and under her Christmas tree and finally trapped it behind the encyclopedias (back when we actually needed the physical books and not the Internet!) I put a bucket over the rat and we slid a piece of plywood underneath to trap the animal.

We called the base animal control and they said someone would be right over. We sat on the front porch with the rat in the bucket with plywood safely on top. The airman showed up in his combat fatigues – boots and all. My neighbor asked if she could have the bucket back after they were done – he said “No problem”. He took the bucket to the end of her walkway – about 10 feet from where we were sitting – picked the rat out of the bucket by the tail, placed the rat on the sidewalk and stomped on it with his boot!!!!!

He calmly picked the rat up and walked back to his truck, leaving the bucket on the sidewalk! Needless to say this was way before Hanta Virus and environmental controls! If this happened today you’d have a dude show up in a white contaiment suit!

I’ll try to keep in touch by reading your blog! Give my best to Candace.