(this is the face of a rat’s worst ennemy in the still of the night.  cold.  tactical. efficient.  or something.)

The call came at about 11:00pm.  My
aunt hates rats.  Freaking huge ones especially.  Apparently,
while she was making a late snack, a rat was sitting on the counter
looking at her.  She screams, the rat bolts… for the
stove.  It dives into the range and gets lost in the oven
itself.  But the rat has nowhere to go unless he comes out from
the stove first– so she keeps an eye on it while we (myself, and my
parents) get geared up and ready to go.

First of all, you need to know your battleground.

(The best laid plans)

We have the same stove, or at least, similar ones, so I opened up my
own stove and got a good sense of where the rodent could have
gone.  Possible escape routes.  Blind spots.  I had to
think like the rat: if a spatula came in trying to scoop or slap me,
what would I do?

After figuring things about half out, realized it was getting a bit
late so we headed out to think up the mode of capture on the spot.

Removed all the ranges from the oven and put pyrex (transparent) pot
covers to cover them so he couldn’t jump out. The rat was hiding in the
metal ‘tray’ area above the oven compartment and below the heating
elements.

The rat has two modes of escape.  He can come up from the the
ranges (same way he got in) or he can go out through the back (which is
open) and fall behind the stove (which will put him under the
stove).  We remove the drawer from the stove so that if he does
fall under, we can see him.

Then we turn on the oven.  Heat will rise and make it a bit hot
for his ratty little hands and feet. I dubbed this tactic “Operation
Cook-out”.

He takes a peek up the range.  I get a look at the rat, which
turns out to be a three inch (head to ass) field mouse.  NOT A
RAT.  It’s easier in that sense cause we don’t have to worry about
the rat fighting back so badly.  On the other hand, he’s smaller
and a lot more escapable.

We can’t get him in the range because if we move the glass cover, he’ll
just dive back in.  So he and I, the mouse, we take a long look at
eachother.

Eventually he goes back in and he does dive out the back.  Then he
runs across the kitchen floor.  We had secured the perimeter near
the stove so he’s got nowhere to go… didn’t think he’d make it past
us and under the fridge though.

So we spend a good bit of time scaring him out from the fridge.  End result:

I caught him eventually under a trash can lid on open floor.  Slipped a peice
of cardboard under.  Taped the lid to the cardboard.  Then
set him free in the park across the street.

Mission complete.

Total Mission Time: 1hour, 10 minutes.

Equipment: 2 brooms, 2 trash
can lids, 6 pot covers (some transparent, some not), two brooms, one
oven, 1 roll of tape, one stack of 2X4s for establishing a perimiter
fence.  One phone with camera.  1 extra long shoe horn. 
2 spatulas.  1 chopstick. 1 pair of goggles. 1 flashlight.

Casualties: None.  And if the mouse tries to sue me for psychological damage, who do you think the judge is going to beleive?