I have trouble understanding anyone's squeamishness abut killing vermin. My concession to the animal-rights lobby is to try to kill 'em quick and not prolong the agony.

Living in an international port city in a subtropical climate, we occasionally get RATS, not just cute little mice. When they die in some hidden corner, the stink -- the smell of death -- can be overwhelming. (I can state unequivocally, from experience, that the notion of keeping rats to kill the mice, as mentioned above, is *not* such a good idea.)

No rodents in the last 4-5 years, since we got cats. The cats live outside, but seem to keep the rats and mice away from the house as well as the yard.

My most alarming rat story:

About 20-22 years ago, we were living in a one-story house in Algiers, just a few blocks from the Mississippi waterfront, across the river from the French Quarter. One morning I discovered a BIG rat -- 4 or 5 inches long NOT counting the long stringy tail -- swimming in the toilet bowl! I had actually already dropped my drawers and was halfway to a sitting position when I spotted the nasty thing -- andt jumped up VERY quickly! The thought of actually lowering my dangly parts to within a few inches of the surface made me turn white and shiver.

I learned that this type of thing is not unheard of hereabouts, especially in houses built just a foot or two off the ground. The rats live in the sewer and are able to hold their breath long enough to swim upstream and surface inside one's toilet bowl.

I used a plunger ("plumber's friend") to hold the little bastard down and drown him, by the way. It wasn't quick and it wasn't pretty. I thought he was done for at one point, buy he resurrected himself as soon as I released pressure on the plunger -- had to do it again, and waited much longer the second time before assuming it was all over.