the joy of killing rats

lately we've had a bit of a rat problem. the pest control guy placed bait packets inside each side of the garage door. well, it's been working...on the mice. we've had about 4 dead mice in the rose garden in the past week and a half. although, grateful that i had not personally encountered a rat, i was a bit bummed out that we were not killing them...at least any that we'd found. so yesterday, when we were heading out to run errands, my daughter walked around to the driver's side of the car and said, very calmly, "uh, mom...there's a rat and it's alive". i rushed over to shove her away, since her curiosity always seems to take over and a rat on poison just does whatever. the electrician working on the pool across the street came walking towards us at this time and i asked him if he could help me with a rat. i handed him a shovel and he picked it up and threw it on the curbside lawn of our neighbors. it died very shortly after that, leaving their lawn guys to clean it up today. i was a little jittery from coming face to face with a live rat, but ecstatic about killing one. i'm all for lab testing on rats...they can have mine.