Just saw a rat in my garden

[Kayrel]

God I struggle to even type the word. Phobia isn’t the half of it

So our house does back up onto countryside so I’m realistic in that they must exist somewhat close to me. Neighbours also compost and 5 or so years we had to block an entrance said animals were using into our garden.

im worried cause my dog is very interested in a side garage which we do not use. (Direction it ran)

We do not leave rubbish out due to my phobia. I make extra dump runs to avoid this. All access points are sealed.

Please tell me what to do. Money is tight (had to fork out for car issues)

Someone sensible please tell me what to do. I have broken my phone before by chucking it when I unexpectedly saw a pic of said animal. Phobia is terrible. This will cause an issue with dh cause I am blowing up issue

We have chipmunks in ours and it always makes me laugh that they are really just rats with stripes and better PR. I love them!

That's good to read. I keep small animals (adoptions) be it rats, gerbils. In fact my son and I were watching fancy pet rat videos on you tube this evening. Lovely little things. As for ones in wild, they mean no harm. OP I would definitely address the phobia. I did this for my spider phobia. DS found a big one on the stairs, we all had a look and carefully stepped over. No killing little creatures in this house. I tried to educate myself about them instead.

I had similar, OP, but found out it's common for an odd rat to pass through your garden, and doesn't mean they are living there. If there is no available food (eg you don't have a compost heap) they will just move on. They don't like change so get DP to move around anything possible.

Attaching some screenshots of advice (as links include photos.)

And another one, OP...

All those glibly saying 'deal with your phobia': that would take time and most likely paid-for professional help.

Fancy (i.e. domesric) rats I'm afraid, co i can't come and collect your visitor 😁