Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Back around Halloween a friend of mine who lives near us told me a scary story. She was doing laundry in the basement and she grabbed a pile of clothes and also felt a rat running right past her hand and off the table.

She got an exterminator in to look at the situation and put traps there and they caught a big pregnant rat that was just ready to give birth. Thankfully, she was dead.

There’s still at least one more rat down there, at least one. She’s told the landlord and reported it to the city and the city told her she was 201 on the list to have someone come out from City Hall. The exterminator was supposed to come back and check the traps but he hasn’t returned her phone calls.

In the meantime, my friend is terrorized by the idea of rats in her cellar. She’s hesitant on taking down her Christmas decorations so she doesn’t have to put them back down the cellar. I asked readers to share their rat stories.

“Big rat trap with a chunk of blue cheese. I’ve caught two. They are everywhere!”

“There was a dead rat outside of my parents’ house. It took the city two days and multiple phone calls to come scoop him.”

“Yes, in Davis Square right outside the Harvard Health and in the library parking lot! It’s disgusting.”

“Of course, there are rats aplenty with all that condo construction!”

A friend of mine who lives near the high school near the tracks picks off rats with his pellet gun. A few years ago, there was a rat in his toilet.

As of this writing my friend with the rat in her cellar, she is still waiting nervously for a solution. An insider tells me that a city councilor is on the case. Meanwhile, Yuck!