Sir – A cautionary tale for residents of Grandpont with downstairs lavatories.

On several mornings over the last week or so, I noticed a damp lavatory seat with water splashes on the surrounding floor in the downstairs bathroom.

I thought it strange but my suspicions were raised when some rice from inside the doorstop outside the bathroom had been disturbed and so I closed the bathroom door.

The next morning, to my horror, chunks of wood had been gnawed from the doorframe through to the kitchen, and that evening there were large droppings and indications of activity in my garden room. The evidence was now clear that a rat had emerged through the lavatory bowl and jumped into the house, and I had inadvertently blocked its escape back down the soil pipe. It had then made a nest out of the mattress of my sofabed.

My lovely neighbour, Mr Tim Lowe, very kindly helped me shoo the rat out into the garden, a non-trivial operation. Our primary objectives were to provide the large brown creature with a clear run and to not get bitten. However, it kept running behind bookcases and cupboards, so by the time it finally ran off into the garden every stick of furniture had been moved out of position.

The clean-up operation was lengthy and unpleasant, but I am grateful that I got away with only one destroyed mattress and some wood damage. The ‘what-ifs’ are frightening; fortunately there was only one rat this time, but rats are not solitary creatures by nature.

While water levels in the sewers are presumably high during this period of flooding, I now have the lavatory seat weighted down with bricks and the bathroom door firmly shut. I suggest that other residents of Grandpont take similar precautionary measures.

Dr Anne Kiltie, Oxford