Sorry to hear about your current lurgy, jansman (and your past lurgy, come to that!) Never knew that leptospirosis was Weil's Disease. There's an official tour of the Brighton sewers during the Brighton Festival in May (guys with walkie talkies are chatting about whether there are local showers constantly) and they're quite open that they give you latex gloves because you need to hold handrails for steps, and there are rats all over the place, of course (tour is fantastic, all that Victorian brickwork and engineering, and the boom of the sea against the valve that keeps the sea water out).
Anyway ... loving the cat stories
my cats were useless at hunting, they took a few swipes at a big moth once, thats about it. I've seen them watch the big house spiders run across the floor, and do absolutely nothing. Totally my fault for treating them like house cats, even though they weren't
I had rats about five years ago here, and then a *load* of them a few years ago. As well as ordinary undergrowth, there's a marshy nature reserve about 50 yards away that looks like a mangrove swamp after a couple of days rain, it must be full of them. Poison! The second time, it smelt like chocolate, that was fun
but its a cheap Wilko one. It does the job, but not nearly sturdy enough, I can see it won't last long. So, since Nectar are holding a double points thingy at Sainsbo next week (only via the app now, I'm afraid) and homewares count, I'm buying two good quality tin openers 
So I'm currently trying to do all the stuff he normally does. Forcing a big shovel into a coalhouse then carrying it up 4 steep steps at the back door is knocking hell out of my knees and shoulders. So far the easiest way seems to be filling 2 supermarket carrier bags and leaving them on the top step, then just picking up the bag and dumping the whole lot on the fire. The ashcan needs emptied twice a day, it's huge and heavy, and that's the next thing I need to work round.
