HE’S ESCAPED.

Arnold is out. As in, he’s in the house. He found his point of entry. Or rather, he not so much as found it since we last spoke as he just chewed his way out.

It turns out Arnold probably wasn’t the rat that someone spotted outside the house… it seems he may have been in the vents for a while now.

Excerpts from a text message conversation (none of the below was said by me).

“We are in a race against time and and he (Arnold) knows it.”

“I just think this should be easy. We build an off ramp from the vent to the box.”

“I don’t think you should do that. It sounds like inviting it to hang out in your kitchen.”

“It’s an off ramp to death. Rats gotta go.”

You’ll notice in the photo above that a box of some sort was left below the vent to catch the rat but the off ramp hadn’t yet been constructed when he Houdini-ed his way out.

Fast forward to last night. Upon arriving at Arnold’s house I sat down and promptly saw a gray blur out of the corner of my eye. The sighting was confirmed by someone in the room with me. Lets just say that the next half hour included several sightings as Arnold scurried around the living room in which he was now enclosed (blockades had been erected in doorways). There was some standing on tables, some glove wearing and pole wielding, some squealing, and a firm belief that we could capture him under a plastic tub.

Spoiler: we couldn’t capture him and he somehow eluded us again by scurrying beneath a radiator and apparating away Harry Potter style.

The hunt continues.

p.s. Turns out he may be more the size of gerbil than a kitten….