Attack of the Rats

The other day Mark came home at noon and said, "From now on, my daily success will be measured by how many rats I kill."
Let's just say that in these last few days he has been VERY successful.

This picture is from somewhere else, which I can guarantee because our barn is now the cleanest it has ever been.  Wendell has been tidying and cleaning in every moment between emptying and filling rat traps.  There is certainly no grain laying around like that little rat is enjoying.
Tonight, after writing my last (angst ridden) entry, Mark and I walked over to the barn to shut in the hens.  While we were there he decided to take a 'quick check on the traps'.  Keep in mind this is after a two day total of 14 dead rats.  That's right.  Fourteen.  (Dollar store sardines turned out to be a rats fantasy feast-they cannot resist.)
We walked in, turned on the light and some movement across the barn caught both our eyes.  We stood there, me frozen in fear, Mark awe-struck, while he counted aloud as we watched NINE rats follow one another up a break in the wall into the ceiling.  It started with a HUGE silver one we've dubbed RatZilla II (RatZilla I was snapped up last year in the chicken coop) and after she disappeared up into the hole, each of her EIGHT little (relative term) cronies obediently trundled right up there with her.  What is that statistic? For every rat you can see, there are....how many more?  UGH!
If there was ever anything to make me forget about poor choices in agricultural marketing it's RATS!  I'm exhausted but I'm scared to sleep for the nightmares I know will have now. 

Hope this finds you secure in the state of your basements, outbuildings and barns. :)

-Sally