Resident rat?

This morning, Felix showed an interest in the old kitchen fireplace where I keep a wicker hamper for his cat food. Uh-oh, I thought, that would be an ideal place for the rat to hide – close to the cat food and water bowl. It could live there.

Later in the morning, Mum looked up from the newspaper and exclaimed that the rat was on the back of the sofa. It quickly darted out of sight. ‘Cute little thing,’ said Mum, ‘with beady little eyes.’

After a while she saw it going under the dining table. That’s near the door onto the deck, so I opened it wide, hoping the rat would answer the call of the wild in preference to 5-star domestication.

We haven’t seen it since. The only evidence (possibly) of its presence is the bite marks on one of the windfall apples on the table. As a rule I put the windfalls which are partly eaten by birds on the bird feeder. It seems unlikely that I missed bites so obvious. Does this indicate that he has taken up residence? My sense is that he took the chance and went outside. Here’s hoping.