Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

A Visitor in the Attic

 

There I was up in my friend's attic because I had offered to reorganize it.

Dust, dead bugs, cobwebs and a low ceiling did not bother me.

A styrofoam cooler I used for a stool happily intrigued as I sorted books, photos, letters, clothes… 

Until two rats, well feed, jumped out of the ceiling, one landing on my foot, as the other one ran along the wall nearly touching my shoulder. Startled yes, even though clues told me I was not alone up there. 

As I type this blog post the memory of those two cheeky creatures makes me think twice about going back… Are you afraid of rats? Spiders? Snakes? The dark…

 

 

Comments

37 responses to “A Visitor in the Attic”

  1. nancy w

    I’m still stuck on your using the styrofoam cooler as a seat. You must be an itty bitty thing. Not afraid of things necessarily but some things I don’t like in close proximity such as large rats and I find bats just too ugly.

    Reply
  2. Jacklynn Lantry

    Snakes, terrified. A real phobia. Even a picture of one. I once cleared out a doctor’s office when, flipping through a magazine in the waiting room, I saw a pic of one. I screamed and threw the magazine across the room while jumping out of my chair. The whole office came running and I felt like an idiot.

    Reply
  3. pc brown

    Oh mercy. I’m so glad you are ok!
    I have quite a few things on my “THAT CREEPS ME OUT!” list, and yes, vermin, spiders, snakes…all on there! I seriously would have just screamed like they were ax murderers!
    I saw a cockroach crawl across the floor in a church we attended in Hawaii, hubby saw it too and was hoping I’d missed it, but he knew I’d seen it when I stood to leave. He followed and as we were walking to the door I heard a “WHACK!” turned and saw an old lady had just stood up, took her slipper off, and whacked the tar and life out of it! It was hilarious and stress relieving for me! lol

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  4. g

    got the shivers reading that….our house at the shore has an attic which is not bad at all except really hot in the summer cold in the winter….but the crawl space underneath the house where the outdoor water valves and pies are now that is another story entirely….no rats but all sorts of spiders bugs and I scare my self imaging snakes are there-never saw one but the possibility-any treasures up there on a more positive not-cheeky buggers is right fric and frac the two well fed rats!

    Reply
  5. Kipper

    Wild rats and mice. Pet mice and rats don’t scare me at all. I’m . Most of my loved ones are scared of spiders more than vermin. So, if they see a spider I kill it for them, if I see a rat they dispatch it for me. It all works out. Does your friend have a cat you could take up to the attic in case you see more rats?

    Reply
  6. Debra

    All of those things you listed in exactly the same order!

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  7. Janet Eiffel

    I understand and sympathize with you.
    I have done almost the same scene
    because of spider pictures !!!!
    Hate, hate, hate them !!!!!

    Reply
  8. Jacqueline

    Oh my goodness, I think I may have jumped out that window! I’m Absolutely terrified of rats, I can’t even look at them, but bugs don’t bother me at all. Strange how we can have phobias like that.

    Reply
  9. Diane Belforte Lewis

    oh darn, thought you were going to have a good ghost story to tell. As for the critters,I could handle the rats more than spiders….. anything but spiders.

    Reply
  10. Andrea

    Rats are my greatest fear…..I would have died a thousand deaths if that had happened to me! I had to think of my fear of rats to understand your fear of dogs…..it just is … And always has been…..even though I was born in the year of the rat

    Reply
  11. Penelope Bianchi

    Funny! Here is my story! We had a pet white rat when my daughter was little…..he was the smarted thing! He lived to be 9! (a record)! My daughter won an award when she designed a “handicapped cage” because his hindquarters were weak…. Good idea!
    Bats are my favorite. They will eat pounds of mosquitoes a day! They are the most beautiful and beneficial animals….google bats to learn. No bat has ever gotten in anyone’s hair! They have radar. Old wive’s tale! We have a bat house to attract…….no bats…..
    Fear of spiders….makes no sense either…one or two kinds of spiders are poisonous…you will never see them; they hide. Black widows and brown recluse.
    Spiders also eat mosquitoes and other not so good bugs. My mother lived in Shanghai (she was from California) in the 1920’s and she arrived at her very fancy hotel room. There was an enormous tarantula in the corner of the shower….up high. She shrieked! (6 inches across)! The first person she could find who spoke English said: “Oh Missy! We put him here! He very important! He eat mosquitoes!!!!”
    Malaria was rampant….in the “Orient” (she lived in Manila….and then Shangha); she did get Malaria 3 times….but never in Shanghai thanks to her spider. She named him
    “Harry”! She was never afraid of any spiders again! Me neither! spiders are our friends! And bats…..
    maybe it is all context…..and knowledge. Understanding….who knows?

    Reply
  12. Penelope Bianchi

    I have to add that I would sit right there on that styrofoam cooler and go through that attic! I opened my chicken coop and a wild rat landed on my shoulder! He wanted no more to do with me….than I him…..why are we afraid of these animals! They don’t want to hurt us!

    Reply
  13. Taste of France

    As Woody Allen said, “I am at two with nature.” Insects, animals–all fine as long as they aren’t under my roof.
    A friend was telling about cleaning out his mother’s attic, in a big chateau. He pulled a drop cloth from a big heap in a corner and discovered a huge pile of dynamite! The vignerons used it to dislodge big rocks when planting new vines decades ago. He said there was more than enough to blow up the entire chateau. He called the mayor to get the right experts to get it out, but said it was very touchy at the moment, being found with a huge cache of dynamite.

    Reply
  14. Our French Oasis

    I have a complete phobia of rats and mice. Growing up on a farm where they were often in the corn or feed room I really should be used to them, I have seen them all my life, but they scare me half to death! Living in an old farmhouse in the UK before we came to France, we had mice occasionally. I don’t even have to see them, I can sense if they are there. But if I do see one I will leap on the nearest chair terrified. My husband dreads that scream, “there’s a mouse” because he knows his life will be a nightmare until they are all gone. When we bought this ancient farmhouse in France, one of the first questions I asked “are there mice?” We now have two fabulous barn cats who thus far have made sure I never have to see one!

    Reply
  15. Tongue in Cheek

    It was a sturdy cooler, trust me.

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  16. Tongue in Cheek

    Fear is real, but I bet that incident has been shared a few times.

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  17. Tongue in Cheek

    Did you say, “Amen!”

    Reply
  18. Tongue in Cheek

    A crawl space I couldn’t do that with a rat, nor a snake. Yikes, no way out fast enough.

    Reply
  19. Tongue in Cheek

    A cat is a good idea, but I couldn’t be there to watch what would happen!

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  20. Tongue in Cheek

    🙂

    Reply
  21. Tongue in Cheek

    I agree. The rat didn’t scare me as it happened so fast.

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  22. Tongue in Cheek

    Hey Cousin! A ghost story would have been worse!!!! I lived in a haunted house and hated it!

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  23. Tongue in Cheek

    I wonder if I was born the year of the dog?

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  24. Tongue in Cheek

    Wow!

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  25. Tongue in Cheek

    Fear is why. If a dog had fallen from the ceiling I would have been more afraid. Doesn’t make sense does it.

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  26. Tongue in Cheek

    Gulp. That is scary stuff!

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  27. Tongue in Cheek

    Cats to the rescue or to the feast!

    Reply
  28. Julia – Vintage with Laces

    I’m not afraid of mice, rats and spiders but millipedes and other creatures with more than 8 legs freak me out a bit. We do have snakes in the garden. I’m not exactly happy when I see one but I don’t sream or run.

    Reply
  29. Elaine

    I once had a dream, when I was a child, about a huge rat that had an opossum head, and he kept coming into my room, through my bedroom window. We couldn’t get rid of him. Every time we thought he was out, I would see him sneaking back in my window! Needless to say, I hate both rats and opossums!
    I want to hear more about you living in the haunted house!
    YIKES

    Reply
  30. karen

    Eeek! We have raccoons in our attic right now…much rather have them than rats!

    Reply
  31. Jude

    I have intense fear of rodents. It’s called mousaphobia. I literally start trembling and get really, really hot. That whole fight or flight thing. I grew up in an old farmhouse that had them and one night I woke up and there was a RAT on the pillow next to me! I never got over it and I slept with the light on as long as I lived at home. It’s terrible. On the other hand, I have no fear of snakes. Go figure.

    Reply
  32. Stubblejumpin Gal

    Oh my god! There would have been screamage, had it been me.
    I’m not necessarily “afraid” of rodents or snakes or insects, but I am easily startled, and that would’ve freaked me right out. I jump and Eek when a leaf blows unexpectedly across my path, or when a clutch of fuzz moves in the corner of a room in my house.

    Reply
  33. Lilly

    Anything with a long snaky tail; snakes, skinks, rats eek! We have lizards running around here and they don’t bother me but if the tail is any longer, I make a ululating scream that makes my husband laugh and jump a mile.

    Reply
  34. Carol L

    Karen
    Get rid of them A.S.A.P ! Besides the fact that raccoons, mice, bats and rats and their feces carry deadly diseases they will chew through the wiring in your attic and cost you big bucks down the road. We had a couple of squirrels in our roof space and they even ripped down the insulation in the three days it took to trap them.

    Reply
  35. Jen

    Snakes. I jump right out of my skin.

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  36. Bonnie Schulte

    yes, afraid of rats, spiders, snakes, but not so much the dark, unless I am alone, in a spooky space away from home. I can’t even step on a spider, I’ll just stand there and holler for help…But, I think mice are cute, and they don’t bother me..

    Reply
  37. Jan

    You know I just looked at the pictures of the windows on the tiny house to see what shape they are… 🙂

    Reply

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