5

Dr Mulligan’s House

Walking round to the Doctor’s house the following Saturday with Emily, Dora was muttering to Allie and Meg,

‘I wonder if it’s the garage, the shed, the woodpile or the compost heap. Bound to be one of those places. Now you girls, remember we’re a professional set-up. Think what you’re doing and do it well.’

Dora had hardly spoken these words when an old van came up the village street and slowed to a crawl. As it passed, Dora glimpsed the face of a rather handsome Jack Russell staring out of the rear window. He was either tall or perhaps he was standing on something, but he didn’t look friendly and she could have sworn that he bared his teeth at her.

Charming! She thought.

The Doctor’s house was a delight to the dogs. It was a complete tip. Books, papers, screwdrivers, empty mugs and a dusty laptop adorned the kitchen table, and the crumbs around the electric toaster had tiny paw marks cutting through them. Everything had been nibbled. Dora was thrilled and her spirits rose. This was more like it!

Emily approved too, and patted Dora gleefully.

‘I expect he’s so busy looking after his patients that he doesn’t have time to clean,’ she whispered to Dora. ‘It’s great don’t you think? I wish my mum would stop cleaning. And tidying up. It drives me nuts.’

Dora was just about to talk tactics to her daughters when there was a rap on the front door. She followed the doctor and Emily as they went to open it. She heard a man’s voice, rather croaky and high pitched.

‘Good morning Sir! I hope you don’t mind me calling in. I just happened to notice you coming along with three terriers. Is there anything I can do for you? I’m the local pest control man, and my rates are very reasonable. No pest is too small, as it says on my van indeed.’

‘Oh no, thank you!’ The doctor replied at once. ‘A friend in the village, do you know Mrs Featherstone? This is her daughter Emily. She’s kindly lent me her dogs. I do have a bit of a rat problem.’

Archibald Trundle glanced indoors. ‘So you have,’ he said, ‘but your friend’s terriers are bitches aren’t they?’ Mr Trundle glared at Dora, Allie and Meg. ‘You might prefer a team of dogs? Mine are very experienced indeed!’

‘What’s he talking about?’ growled Dora, ‘some of the best ratters in the country are female. In fact it’s beginning to be recognised that we’re better by far at the psychology of the business. We can think like rats if we want to, and therefore outsmart them.’

She turned her growl in Mr Trundle’s direction, then pushed Allie and Meg out of hearing of such nonsense. Seeing that the back door of the doctor’s house was ajar she led them outside and the three of them trotted round to the front of the house where the pest control van was parked.

Staring out of the rear window was the handsome terrier she had already seen, together with three other dogs. The handsome one was snarling and barking horribly, and scratching the glass as if he’d like to break through it and tear her to pieces.

‘Dora turned to her daughters. ‘Show them your teeth!’ she instructed her young family, and the three of them snarled back in unison.

Then Meg nudged Allie.

‘See that one with the black ears?’ she asked her sister. ‘He just gave you a lovely look.’

‘Poo,’ said Allie. But she’d seen it too, of course.

The old man came back then, and Dora heard him shout at his dogs.

‘Behave! We could be in trouble lads. You want to eat? You gotta think what to do about this lot of nambies. They’re taking our trade.’

Dora, Allie and Meg had a great time in the doctor’s house, as did Emily. Dora was glad that Emily had done her homework, and knew to look for rodent tracks around the house.

‘I’ve read ‘The Rat Catcher’s Manual (amateur edition)’,’ Emily explained to Andrew Mulligan, ‘and you need to put the food away, because that’s why they’re coming in.’

The Doctor looked surprised. ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ he said.

Emily opened the kitchen cupboards and Dora squeezed inside the lower shelf. Two rats made a break for it and were caught by Allie and Meg. Next Dora took her girls outside and sniffed around the drainpipe. Rat droppings were everywhere and it was easy to see that a hole at the back of the drain was the place where the rats were coming through. Emily pointed it out to the doctor who promised to block it off as soon as he could. Finally they found a nest out in the shed and they tackled that too. Dr Mulligan said he was delighted although he looked a little pale after all the crashing china and flying flower pots. He invited Emily and her dogs back into his house for a drink and biscuits.

While Emily and Dr Mulligan were chatting and eating biscuits, Allie trotted off into the garden to look at the fence. She was sniffing around and wondering why there was such a clear rat path appearing under the weeds, when she caught sight of a pair of black ears on the other side of the wooden panels. Two eyes blinked, and Allie stared. She forgot the rats as she realised with a rush of heat, that it was him again.

‘Och, you’ll never clear them out,’ said Spud, who had dashed over to try and get another glimpse of Allie while Herbie was watching Crimewatch on telly. (This was Mrs Nockerty’s favourite too and she recorded and re-played all the episodes lots of times).

‘Who asked you?’ asked Allie, ‘and we’ve nearly finished as a matter of fact.’

‘Oh, you’ll clear those ones all right,’ said Spud, gesturing towards Dr Mulligan’s house, ‘but there’ll always be more. This trail leads straight from the garden across the fields to Rat Hall, over the back there, about half a mile away. Your man here doesn’t stand a chance!’

‘Explain.’

‘Rat Hall’s in the next village, but there’s a direct run from there to here, across two fields. Look!’ He waved a paw in the direction of a narrow, rat’s width path which Allie could see winding towards them across the adjoining field and dropping down through the ditch, rising again as it came out about two metres from Dr Mulligan’s garden.

‘This place has become a storehouse,’ Spud went on, ‘the rats come to stock up.’

Allie kept looking at his ears.

‘Why haven’t you lot sorted them out then?’ she asked, ‘if you’re so clever?’

‘We’re expecting to get the job any day now,’ said Spud. ‘Rat Hall’s being sold at last, and Mr Trundle - he’s my boss – says we’re going to make our fortune.’

‘You think so do you?’ said Allie, ‘maybe you should wait and see.’