Rat, or Mouse?

I am fully aware that for the past month or so, I've been sharing the shop with a rat. It first made itself known to me by running across the doorway while I was having a wee - I'm aware you didn't really need to know that bit, but it puts things into context! Back then, it was tiny, and I questioned whether it was a rat. However, mice are less rounded, and being surrounded by food businesses, rats are to be expected.

 

A week later, it made itself known again; this time, it actually ran across my foot as I was sitting at the desk processing an order. I have one of those circulation mats under there, so my shoes were off and electrical pulses were doing their thing. I thought being close to my feet (which can occasionally be a bit pungent) or experiencing an electric pulse might deter it, and for a while, it was unseen. I heard that someone at the bus stop had allegedly seen a couple of rats running around inside the takeaway at the end, but when the person phoned the council, they conveniently mentioned they had visited just the evening before and found no signs of rats.

 

I don't know how the takeaway manages because, to keep their back door closed while cooking in high temperatures (it was 39°C in my shop one morning last week), they must be boiling alive. I admire their ability to avoid leaving their doors open. The reason I have had my visitors is that I have to open the back door to let some air in. I've almost melted a few times as it is; shutting the door would see me as a huge puddle of blubber at my workbench!

 

Later that same day, the chippy cleaned out their bin (I'm grateful because it stinks when it's warm), but they rinsed it into the road, so the smell stuck to the tarmac, heated up, and for a few days, my shop was filled with a pungent rotting fish smell! The day after, when I arrived at the shop, a couple of rats were happily licking the tarmac (better than window licking, I guess!). I had another visit that day too; this time, the rat ran from the toilet and out the back door—I'm assuming it was the same one.

 

Come last Monday, just before 7 am, I made my way to the desk. As I waited for the computer to start up, I saw one of our selection guides sitting on top of the recycling bin next to my chair. As I moved the guide, a rat jumped up from the bin, ran across the desk, and disappeared around the corner, presumably heading to the back door. I think it was more shocked than I was. Randolph (as I named him) had definitely tripled in size since my first encounter with him.

 

Being blissfully unaware and not always putting two-and-two together, it never occurred to me that when I complained to my wholesaler about getting too many heads snapped off Chrysanthemums, the missing heads were actually being eaten. It was only on that Monday when Randolph had obviously spent the weekend inside the shop that it registered it could be him eating them. However, none of the stems were bent, damaged, or broken. It was as though someone had just popped them off. I cannot believe a rat of his size would be able to climb the main stem and then up the thinner flower stems before popping them off. Also, Google informed me that Chrysanthemums can be poisonous to rats, making them a good plant to grow to keep them away from your garden. This left just one other option: a mouse!

 

Unless there is some kind of spider that likes to eat Chrysanthemums, I now have to assume it was a mouse. Oddly, no petal is ever left behind, so whatever is taking them is eating it all. There is no sign of any droppings, and whatever is eating them has only ever eaten the yellow ones!

 

For ten days, there has been no sign of any rodent or Chrysanthemum-eating spider. Other than a bag of flower stems I may leave in the shop overnight (I take home all the stems to put in my compost bin—my roses have bloomed better than in previous years thanks to my homemade compost), I have no other food source readily available. When customers gift me cakes, chocolate, and biscuits, they either go into the fridge or in a kitchen cupboard with a very tight-fitting door. I vacuum at the end of every day, so if there are any biscuit crumbs—they are not left to tempt anything into the shop. Plus, there are six other businesses open in the evening that offer food, so there's not much need for a furry visitor to come to me.

 

Then, this very morning, I went to move a hand-tied bouquet I made up just before I left last night. It's for display only, and as I picked it up from my workbench, I wondered why it looked so empty. I was sure I had made it look fuller. At that moment, I saw three areas filled with multiple stems—those three areas had housed some beautiful yellow Chrysanthemum flowers. Not anymore. Look at them.↓↓↓