There's a rat in my kitchen what am I gonna do?

Being from a small town in the middle of nowhere has had its fair share of issues for me over the years, issues such as having to travel miles to get to the nearest half decent shop and of course any chance of a late night McDonald's is long forgotten when you consider the effort it would take to get one. These things are just a couple of reasons why I love Southampton, although its not a big city for a little almost country bumpkin like myself Southampton offers a far more interesting life style than the one I have back at my parents house. However this blog is not a dedication to Southampton it is actually the opposite, as living in a city has its down sides, one of which is the huge problem with rodents. I hate, hate rodents. I have an not so uncommon phobia of the little buggers, which is why it freaks me out to have to be sharing my house with the pests. For the last year it has been a constant battle with the useless landlord and estate agency to deal with this issue, and needless to say the issue is far from resolved. After finding a huge dead beast in the middle of my kitchen floor on return from a visit to my beloved little town, I decided enough was enough, and called the pest control myself. At a lovely little cost of £50 , money which could of brought me a nice pair of shoes, I felt I could no longer face my fear every time i wanna go in the kitchen for a cup of coffee. So mouse man came round put some poison down and informed me that he would be back the following week for a re-visit. I was very happy with this and saw him out the door relieved that the problem will be fixed. Anyway a week later mouse man returned, and informed me that its not just mice that we have it is in fact rats, which is what I had told my landlord and he just laughed in my face and reassured me that it was only mice. Which is crazy cause mice are still gross, but rats! Rats are on a whole other level of gross. Anyway mouse man asked if there was a man in the house, I was a bit taken aback by this question, seeing my confusion he said "No, no not anything like that, wasn't trying anything, just i'm going to put a trap down and it needs to be checked everyday, so." I felt it was a tad bit insulting that he thought that just because I am female I would be incapable of disposing of the little bread stealing creature, which of cause is exactly the case but he did not know this. Anyway he put some bait down and a trap and will be back next week. So he went off I was happy that maybe just maybe I will be free of this problem, however later that day a friend of mine was over and I heard a snap. Yes I thought the trap has worked. So I sent my friend into the kitchen to investigate, and what he opened the kitchen door to was terrifying! A rat was indeed in the trap, not dead though,no the huge disgusting waste of space was running round my kitchen with the trap on its head. Obviously this was a dilemma, do we let it eventually die or do we do something about it. By we I obviously mean my friend, like hell I was going into that kitchen. So I found a box and a broom and ushered my poor friend into the kitchen, assuring him i was right there holding the door open. When trying to sweep the rat into the box , the trap snapped open and off the pest ran. Damn he got away. Resetting the trap and hoping that it worked the next time was all I could do. After a few drinks we returned to the house later that night to find that the trap has disappeared, literally no where to be seen. Hopefully it got stuck on his head again and he ran back through the hole where he came from got stuck and this acted as a warning to the other rodents to back off from the kitchen. Although i'm not so sure, so to be safe i'm staying out the kitchen until a male can investigate and make sure the coast is clear for me. Maybe mouse man was right, somethings are men's work and should be left for them to deal with. Kylie xxx