My other half has discovered a new way to rid the allotment of rats.
First, start digging out an enormous rosebush that is in the wrong place on the allotment. Dig a huge hole, following its roots down. Get fed up and go home.
Second, leave for a few weeks, until lots of fallen leaves have blown into the hole.
Third, return to have another go at the rosebush, this time with a pickaxe. Heave a mighty heft of the pickaxe into the hole to start loosening the roots. Accidentally put the pickaxe through a rat nesting in the nice comfortable leaves.
Fourth, quietly pick up all pieces of rat and dispose of without letting girlfriend know until it has all disappeared.
Finally, inform girlfriend when she is raking soil into the now vacant hole that "you didn't find the rat's tail... let me know if you spot it...".
Yucky!!!

Ten x