We have lived in our current house for four years this coming July, and from the moment we set foot inside our new home and unpacked our boxes, we have had a rodent issue.  I have been completely ill equipped to deal with this problem because I have lived my entire life in the city, and have apparently lucked out in that I have never seen a mouse in a house, in my entire life. But now I seem to find myself in midst of a full bore rodent festival.

We have chipmunks digging holes all over our yard to the point where my oldest can no longer practice her cartwheels in the grass for fear of a sprained ankle.  We have voles burrowing underground and eating all of our raspberry brambles from the roots up.  We have mice running all over our yard, under our deck, and in our house.  Yuck, yuck, yuck.

We have tried traps, deterrents, poison, and even had an animal proofing professional come out and check out our situation.  Since the rodent expert visited us last fall we, thank God, have not had any more mice in the house.  However, they are still running rampant outside.  And my fear is that it is only a matter of time before those little suckers figure out a new entry point into our house.

I told my husband in early spring, when the snow melted away to reveal vole tracks all over our yard and half of our raspberry patch again killed off by those vermin, that we needed a new solution.  Enter Rajah, the newest addition to the Fagan household.

If you would have told me five years ago that I would end up a cat owner, I would have told you that you were absolutely insane.  I have never, ever liked cats.  But now the girls and I have found ourselves absolutely head over heels in love with this little one.  She was given to us by the eight year old daughter of the family we visited about a month ago.  On our visit, little Rajah was only a few weeks old, with very little fur and still nursing from her mama (who is one of the best mousers on the farm…YES!).  On Saturday we went to visit the farm again, and to adopt our new kitty.

Saying the girls love her in an absolute understatement.  My five year old especially, has not left her side during her waking hours.  In fact, as I write this post the girls are playing at their grandma’s house and the poor girl cried for ten minutes before we got in the car because she didn’t want to leave Rajah.

My hope is that she takes after her mommy and can hunt down those pesky rodents, but for now we are just enjoying play time and snuggle time with our newest addition.

FYI…The girls named her Rajah because that is the name of Princess Jasmine’s (from Aladdin) pet tiger 🙂