The family of Bob

Bob was a teacher he had just graduated from teaching college and was immediately posted to
teach at a community school. The school was situated in a remote and hilly country, surrounded
by bush. Bob married Sherry soon after graduating and came to live together at the school. They
were happy to go to a remote area because it was a quiet place as opposed to a noisy town. In
class Bob spoke with clear and commanding voice. He was very eager to lay a foundations of a
prosperous future with the teaching profession. Students listen attentively so not to miss a word
from him. After lesson students would go to the extent of clapping hands. This made him enjoy
teaching.

Sherry was just a house wife. She kept herself busy by baking cupcakes and selling them to
students and other members of the community around the school. The students liked her cakes so
much compared with the ones found at the market which was not far from school.

The family was enjoying their stay at the school. But one day at night they were awakened by
gnawing noises from their sitting room. Bob got out of bed went into the sitting room only to
find it was rats.

The rat’s clever ideas

The rats visited the Bob family every night as they came from the nearby bush. The noise from
the rats made it impossible at times to sleep comfortably. In the morning Sherry could find rats
droppings in many places of the house this infuriated her. She complained bitterly to Bob that the
rats were causing a lot of damages. They were tearing the flour pockets and at times went into
cupboards and dropped cooking utensils to the floor. It was like this every night.

“I have told you again and again you need to dig up all the rat holes outside to expose them, in
that way they will have nowhere to hide” said Sherry almost shouting.

“But as you dig one hole the rats will keep on digging other holes” Bob lamented.

As time passed situation worsened as rats kept on making noises, sometimes running in the
ceiling. Bob was confused and could not find a clue on how to sort out the situation.

“Friends how do I get rid of the rats from my house?” Bob asked a fellow teacher.

“It’s difficulty to completely get rid of them but you could kill them one by one” said his fellow
teacher.
“How!” wondered Bob.” Buy a rat trap”

The following day Bob and Sherry went to their nearby town and bought a rat trap. For many
days they managed to kill a couple of rats but could not contain them. Their miseries continued.

The rats realised that there was a trap in the house and was claiming atleast one rat a night. The
increase deaths of the rats made the rats not to underestimate the importance and consequences
of the rat trap. As a result they decided to hold a meeting in the main chamber in one of rat hole.
This was their first meeting since the arrival of the trap.

Leading the meeting was Chuffy. Chuffy was a big male rat he was the ring leader and
everybody took attention when he was addressing his fellow rats.

He spoke with courage “Countrymen we have seen how this family is now treating us, it has
brought a trap and each day we are losing one of us, what should we do?”

Chaser was small but fast in thinking and always quick to suggest something, “tomorrow night
let’s pull that trap from the room and lift it into the ceiling. Hide it there so that these people
should not see it again.”

They all agreed. “That’s a good idea” all said and clapped hands. They chose four strong rats
headed by Chuffy to pull the trap from the floor into the roof.

The rats waited for the night. When night came the work started well but when they were
midway up the wall the trap slipped from their mouth and went down, unfortunately Chuffy was
still clinging to the trap with his teeth and went down with the trap, as he reached the floor the
trap trapped his leg and could not move. Bob and Lina were all asleep when noise from the fall
of the trap awoke them.

Sherry shook Bob “the rats again, and it looks they have dropped a big thing, go and see.”

Bob went and found the trap on the edge of the wall with a big rat still alive. He looked for a
stick and finished it. Little did Bob know that above him other rats were watching. The surviving
rats fled and told the tragic story to the rest of the rats. One by one the rats continued to die by
the trap.

The remaining rats held another meeting, it was not a good meeting. Chaser lead the meeting
“these people think they are clever with their trap by killing us one by one. “Some of us
remember how we watched them mercilessly killing our brother Chuffy when he was caught in a
trap. Do they think they will finish us all, they should remember we produce not less than six
babies at one time killing us one by one won’t finish us.”

“By killing Chuffy they have definitely crossed line” said another rat.

“As a revenge we will destroy cupboards, food items and other places with our droppings, in
short we will mess the place” said Chaser.
“Yea, yea” shouted every rat young and old they then retired to their respective holes.

The cats

Before the rats could carry on their destruction, from nowhere two cats came to the house of Bob
and Sherry. Bob and Sherry had never seen cats before.

“Sherry come and see these two animals here, what are they?” Bob asked Sherry.

“I don’t know them either” Sherry said.

“Let’s keep them they look cute” said Bob

“So long as they don’t became a nuisance like the rats, we can keep them” Sherry agreed.

That night the cats slept in the house and to their surprise they had killed more than six rats in
one night.

In the morning Sherry went into the kitchen and screamed “Bob we have found the cure to finish
the rats those two animals have killed six rats overnight.”

Bob called his fellow teacher and asked him “do you have any idea what these small creatures
are?”

“There are called cats and they feed on rats so you are lucky they will definitely chase all the rats
in the house” said his friend.

The good news was passed to Sherry “Iam now so happy a helper has come to solve the rat’s
problems.”

As they sipped their coffee they rejoiced over the achievement the cats had done. Days later the
cats gave birth to two kitten.

“We will share the baby cats with our neighbors so that we completely get rid of rats in this area”
said proud Sherry