Aw, rats!

It's that time of year, when the sewer work outside is about done, the weather is getting colder and the rats of Alberta seek food and warmth indoors.
We have had a few roomies (in the past) who were, how do you say...morons? They didn't heed our warnings to not leave food all over the place in the basement, so when the rats came in, they already had hiways and biways carved by the mice those chumps had been feeding.
It happens every year that the mice migrate in, but we've never had to deal with gentrificated rats in the house before.
Current basement dweller Skye Blue didn't mess around. She moved the compost bin farther away from the house, cleaned the basement, and installed wire gratings over the sewer pipes they get in from.
She had put a large brick over the drain, but the rats teamed up and moved it so she had to take direct action.
We left traps out, baited but not set, for a few days so the rats get used to them, then the other night she set them all. The next day, two of the traps caught two rats at the same time, the other two traps each caught a rat.
Pinga gathered them all up and threw them in the fire pit.
It was his little gift of incense...rat flavored incense with added hair for the lovley restraunt cusomers who helped raise our rent.
Banjo the dog is sweet. She really is an awful rat hunter, she won't wait for the right moment to strike, she goes at it more like a chimp in the silverware drawer, stuff flies everywhere and she needs a lot of help.But she is full of duty. You can see it in her face, she cares.
Last night she spent the whole early morning hours running up and down the corridors of the Clown House patroling for rats.
She advised me of a glue trap in my office that had caught a mouse, I had to get the trap, drown the mouse in the toilet (ugly work, but better than letting the poor critter suffer) and dispose of the body in a place where Banjo won't be able to pull it out.
Y'know what would have really staved this problem off?
A Cat. But the land lord wouldn't let us have a cat. It's amazing, he didn't want any pet damage.
Imagin if you were three inches long, and in the place of the ball in the photo.
She kills rodents she catches, but not with killer instinct or hunting prowess. She drowns them in saliva then looks at me like she broke it when the mouse no longer moves...good dog Banjalina Rodriquez!