That's where it's all going!

A few weeks ago I had a few sightings of a Brown Rat in the garden. As we live in half of an ancient farmhouse and there are some old outbuildings in the next garden...and no longer the traditional group of farm cats...it is not surprising. I thought it was rather interesting to get a glimpse of the rat every so often...and kept the information from my wife. Then I spotted the rat had become very agile climbing the poles supporting the bird-feeders. Once again, I thought it was quite cute seeing it climb the poles and take food. However, it was now more apparent and I had to promise to my wife it would be dealt with soon. Then, a couple of days ago I spotted a smaller rat had mastered the climbing as well and the bird food was disappearing faster. Today, I spotted three smaller rats on the lawn at the same time the adult (mum?) was polishing off food on the bird table. Then I spotted this one that had worked out it could squeeze through the wire on the fat-ball feeder and gorge itself inside (presumeably with little forward thinking about whether it would get too fat to extract itself later!). Anyway, with all this added activity a serious discussion with my wife ensued and I have now warned them that unless they are out of the neighbourhood tomorrow their days (hours!) are numbered. If only they'd kept a lower profile!