As you may know, the past months have seen us in the process of an unplanned house move, meaning we’ve been looking at all manner of options. A couple of places we’ve looked at have been properly rural – you know, surrounded by fields, overlooking a pond/small lake, accessible only down a farm track. Both were unsuitable for different reasons, but I was unexpectedly utterly charmed. Until I mentioned this fact to someone who said “whenever I think of rural, I think of rodents”. Ah…
Our old apartment block backed onto fields, and we frequently had rats in our central rubbish collection areas. In the five years we’ve been there, there’s been a couple of times when I’ve spotted the unmistakable signs of a rapidly moving little rodent within the apartment – too small for a rat, so probably a mouse or a vole. I’ve opened the patio doors and driven them towards the outdoors, but I’d not seen any sign of permanent residence (and have checked carefully).
Except, as part of my pre-moving decluttering process, I’ve been collecting the items I plan to sell on eBay/Vinted in the corner of my office. Upon going through them, I discovered one of the bags had tipped over without my noticing, and there I found unmistakable signs of chewing. As you can imagine, I was not thrilled. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear any serious damage has been done to furniture, fixtures or fittings, but I’ve had cross words with Stan – my visiting neighbour cat – who looked most put out that I was casting aspersions as to his mousing skills. In truth, I suspect the culprit is the uber-indulged cat who lives in the adjoining flat, for Stan only races through our flat as an alternative gateway to his own home when my neighbour hasn’t noticed him wanting to come in.
Said uber-indulged cat (known as Enzo) is currently confined to quarters, as he got a tad beat up during his last visit to the great outdoors. But before his owners grounded him, he brought a little rodent indoors to play with. Indeed, I suspect this fact may’ve had as much to do with his grounding as the injury… for the word on the street says both his owners shrieked and ran away, only to have no idea what happened to said rodent. As our kitchens backed on to one another, and as they didn’t turn the heating on in their apartment, I’m imagining the rodent moved away from the shrieking, away from the cold and through the kitchen cabinets into our heated home. At the time of departure, there was no sign of anything still in residence, although Stan got invited over for a good long explore, just in case.
I suspect the honest truth is the rural life is only for me if I live with a whole host of cats 🐈⬛🐈 And, as I don’t, the place we’ve just moved to is a lovely little architecturally listed apartment in a Georgian town house, right in the centre of a little market town. Bliss…
I’d always considered myself an urbanite, and was surprised to find myself so attracted by rurality. Where do you sit on the urban/rural residential question? What factors caused you to reach that decision?
© Debs Carey, 2025
debsdespatches.com 
I’m glad you’ve landed on a place that feels right. That’s a very good feeling. We’ve lived in both settings. Both urban and rural have their charms. In my experience, they both have rodents! That is until you find yourself on the 10th floor of a new, concrete-built building. I think we’re finally rodent-free! The unexpected downside of rural life is that end up doing far more driving and far less walking.
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I’ve lived urban and suburban, but only briefly rural. I understand how to negotiate live in the city but prefer to live in the suburbs that are quieter. Rural didn’t really do it for me, too much driving to get everywhere.
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Urban for the win. I dislike driving. I like convenience.
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My dream house is on a hill overlooking a lake in rural New Hampshire. And yes, I will need an absolute legion of cats to keep the mice at bay. They all try to come indoors in the winter. But here in SoCal, we’ve got rats galore, thanks to the fruit trees. Keeping them out of the crawl space and the attic is damned near impossible, no matter how many cats we have or traps we set.
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Jane, your comment about both locations having rodents made me literally LOL 😀 I’m delighted to hear that the 10th floor is rodent-free – long may it remain so for you. The last time I lived out in the middle of nowhere, I did find myself having to drive a lot, but I also got into the habit of taking a long walk every evening around the village. On at least one occasion, I felt something rodent-like run across my path (OK, over my feet) but as it was dark, I didn’t get to see what variety it was. In this new place, we have a muddy path favoured by dogs walkers on one side, and the little lanes of the old part of the town on the other. I can choose whether to go wellies or good shoes!
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You had the same experience of rural as Jane. That is a decided downside of rural life, but I still have a teeny tiny hankering for a pond with ducks…
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The convenience is great, but the views and the sounds of the countryside can’t be matched. On the side which overlooks the muddy walk, the night sky here is so clear I go to sleep looking at the stars (we’ve yet to hang the curtains).
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Oh now you’re talking Autumn – excellent selection of dream house, and that legion of cats just adds to the perfection of it. I do feel for you – urban rats are quite a determined sub-set. I’d take rural mice over them any day.
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Sounds like the best of both worlds! 😊
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That’s a gorgeous photo of country life.
We lived in the country for a few years and had only one mouse problem I can remember. He climbed into a small sports bag and died. I couldn’t get the smell out, so I threw the bag away. There seemed to be lots of field mice, but they stayed in the field. Sometimes they were captured by eagle-eyed hawks. Our cat sat like a statue at the edge of the field. If she caught a mouse, she didn’t share it with us.
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💕
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I grew up in a very rural area of Ohio, but I always lived in town or on the outskirts in a neighborhood. My mom and grandparents lived on farms, though. My mom is terrified of mice, which is funny considering she grew up in the country.
Currently, we live in a neighborhood in a fairly large suburb of a major city, and I have squirrels everywhere in my yard (which are technically rodents), but I love them. However, if I saw even one mouse or rat, I’d be SO scared and disgusted. So I completely understand your feelings!
Your new home sounds perfect! 💜
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Nicki, oh yes the smell (boak). My mother discovered that her very spoilt Siamese cats had been pointing but taking no further action when things started to smell bad in her utility room. On pulling out the freezer, a dead rodent was discovered “cooked” in the metal grate at the rear of the freezer. I was the lucky adult child summoned to not only do the discover, but carry out the discarding and clean up functions. Unfortunately, there are many stories of nasty smells in my mother’s utility room, all of which I was blessed with investigating and resolving – this despite my spending most of my adult life phobic about rodents.
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Kari, our new home will be perfect in the not too distant future, but it is sure shaping up nicely already, thank you ❤
I was utterly phobic about all form of rodents until my mid-fifties when I did an NLP "thing" which helped me cope. Prior to that, hysteria was the order of the day. Nevertheless, I was still the nominated clean up crew… oh what a lot that says about my relationship with my mother. But yes, I am so with your mother, all the best people are terrified of mice.
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This is definitely the most rural property in which I have ever lived, but thankfully, all the mice and voles haven’t ventured inside the house (yet, at least). If they did, I imagine Laverne and Shirley might set them straight. Bugs, on the other hand? They’re present all year long.
When I lived in a very urban neighborhood we frequently had mouse infestations. Go figure.
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Glad to hear that Laverne and Shirley are proper mousers Mark. My mother’s Siamese cats were utter rubbish… Urban rodents are not nice – or maybe it’s just my imagination, seeing them as some form of “hard men” or rodent gangs.
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Well, they’re proper mousers behind a wall of glass. No telling what they’d do if they actually had free rein to chase after a rodent!
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Mark, I have every confidence in their abilities. Of course, they may *choose* not to use them… being contrary cats ‘n all 🙂
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We get mice in London (hardly rural) – and we had a rat in the garden until the foxes moved in. Every time we’ve had mice in the house it’s been because one of our cats brought them in! Love your blog
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Caroline, thank you for your kind words about my blog – it’s so appreciated.
There’s no doubting that cats bringing in their little “toys” is a serious problem, especially when they get bored with them but don’t remove them. My daughter lives in London but in an apartment above a Nigerian grocers, so I don’t imagine any rodents have even bothered to get upstairs. When they move to a house with a garden, I suspect a cat *may* become required – hopefully more deterrent than provider!
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