Rats are one of the most resilient rodents on this globe. They take care of their orphaned young, and they survive on whatever they can find, and in whatever nests they can make – all over the globe. Both of my sisters had had experiences with rats (in Canada and in Uganda), and while I had seen the odd rat at a distance, I had never had to deal with living with them –let-alone sleeping with them! At home in the village there is a small variety of rat (from my limited knowledge of rodents, I would have called them mice). There are several problems with having rats around, but aside from their stealing food, and possibly spreading disease, if not just urinating on personal belongings (such as children’s car seats being stored in a hut!), they attract snakes. So, when we had a tribe of rats, numbering in the hundreds, living close to our hut, and after having one of them drown in our drinking water (inside our hut – such a horrible sound to wake up to!), we destroyed their ma...
