A found a rat lodged floating in her toilet after she felt its drowned carcass touch her as she sat down on the loo.
The ordeal left her screaming, according to professional rat catcher Kieran Sampler, who has an estimated body count of 65,000 at the age of 30.
Kieran, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said: ‘The rat has gone up another line of the drain and has come up into the toilet – while a woman was on the toilet.
‘So we had to get it out, it was pretty bad – I’ve never had it where it’s come up the toilet.
‘She was screaming – imagine being on the toilet and something brushes against you.’
It may be the first rat he’s seen climb the drains to a toilet, but it’s not the only potentially traumatising rodent problem he’s been called in to address.
Kieran said: ‘I had a client that had a rat that was living in the wooden lats of a bed – it’s crazy what I’ve seen.
‘I had one where a cat brought the rat in during the night, so the family trapped it inside the bedroom.
‘I brought my dog in, he identified it straight away but the rat ran into the draws of the bedside table.’
Usually fulfilling the rat catching needs of 10 customers a day, a growing number of people have been finding the rodents in recent months.
Most of them he kills without the use of rat traps that lock them in a cage.
Instead he’s trained his Lakeland Terriers – Poppy and Penny – to find and kill the rats ‘in seconds’.
Kieran said: ‘It’s more humane than using poison in my opinion, which is why it’s never been made illegal.
‘It also works quicker than poison – in a good way.’
But rat-proofing your property may be a better solution than calling up Kieran when the rodents are already in.
He said: ‘This winter is going to be bad, I’m already getting farmers ringing me up two months in advance.
‘Winter time is a vital time for rats – they love foliage so if you’ve got heavy foliage in your garden, then I would recommended cutting it back.
‘I would try and reduce bird feeders, you can’t force people to get rid of them because everyone likes them, but I would try and rat-proof them as best you can.
‘Decking is a nightmare because rats love decking – try and proof it up because they will go under it.
‘A lot of people don’t pick up their dog poo up straight away, but that attracts them.
‘If they go inside the property, then it’s more than likely a problem with your drains.
‘When they go into the drains, they eat the human waste and human faeces.’
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