This Whirlpool Comes With A RAT.

This is the work of a RAT....

Saturday whilst in the middle of yet another load of washing, my beloved Whirlpool started to squeal and smell.

Oh dear what was I to do?

As any Mother of children knows one or two days without a washing machine means life as you know it just came to an end. Days catching up on the never ending supply of dirty clothes the 3 little darlings seem to generate. Just what I need ("I" as in Margaret and I).

Being a Saturday I thought I would need to wait until Monday to phone the customer service center. Bright and early Monday morning I was on the phone. I explain my situation,

"My 4 month old washing machine is not smelling and sounding too good, in fact the smell nearly cleared us out of the house it was that bad. I am not very happy (blah blah blah) could you please send someone to fix it, preferably today."(Yeh right)

The reply was, "Today is out of the question Madame as our service guys are busy tending to yesterdays calls."

"What" I say, "Yesterday was Sunday, who works in a customer service center on the weekends?"

"Sorry Madame we wont have anyone there until Tuesday"

"Look this is not good enough, I have 2 days worth of washing to do and I am not happy that my 4 month old machine has died"

"I am very sorry Madame"

Great, what a princess I am.

So the wait began.....

Low and behold the door bell rang at 12pm Monday. The poor service guy got the fright of his life when he saw a crazy white lady jumping for joy. He quickly got to work on the whirlpool, I think to avoid sharing in my excitement.

And this is what he found..

A dirty stinken RAT had a feast on the wires of the control panel. I think I am going to scream. A RAT in my house.

The RAT seemed to have got into the laundry through the drain in the floor that the washing machine hose goes into. Yes that's right, a hole in the floor.

The washing machine even has a RAT cover on the underside, but a lot of good that has done.

Margaret tells me we need to buy rat poison, She obviously doesn't know Mac well enough that we don't leave anything poisonous lying around our house. (Remember the shoe primmer incident?) Then Victor tells me we need a trap. I'm not keen on dealing with a caged angry Rat thanks.

So the answer to my dilema is to cover the drain when not in use with the Laundry detergent tub. And you guessed it this morning I flooded the laundry because I didn't put the hose back down the drain....

Just another day in India.

Oh, just thought I'd share another RAT story. Tuesday night we took the kids to to one and only McDonald's in town for Eliza's birthday, and Sam just happens to spot a RAT running across the air-conditioning ducts in the ceiling. And we thought it was a safe place to eat...

DP, I suppose this means a trip to Chennai is out of the question.