Rats!

Last night Alex and I headed over to my Mom's condo to drop off some food, since she was going to be arriving late, and would probably be hungry by the time she got to her home away from home. We hadn't been there in a couple months, and when we opened the door the first thing we spotted was a mass of fur and droppings on the otherwise white bedsheet. There were other droppings on the floor. The biggest mess was in the bathroom where the toilet was black and crusty with a big spatter on the floor next to it. Putting the pieces together we determined that there had been a rat in the condo. The water in the toilet had evaporated in those couple months (I guess we did have some really hot days), which revealed an inviting tunnel from the underworld. A rat that had come up through the sewer, had nested in a pillow on the bed, had searched the condo and found no food, and then had returned to the sewer. We were completely grossed out and a little traumatized. We searched the whole place for the creature (with a shriek ready to escape our throats at the slightest sign), but it was no where to be found (thankfully!). After flushing the toilet a couple times, and setting a couple traps from Fred Meyer (with some of the cheese that we had intended to leave for my Mom), we closed the door on that mess and picked my Mom up from the airport later that night. Needless to say, she is staying at our place for now, and will probably spend the day trying to find a cleaner to come and sanitize (dear god, just burn it!) the place. Aside from that drama, the ultrasound is tomorrow, and I'm glad my Mom will be here to witness it. If possible, we will capture some video to post here, but at the very least we'll post pictures. The radiologist told me to arrive tomorrow with a full bladder. Little does she know that I will have no trouble avoiding toilets, now that I know what can surface from beneath!