This is actually an excellent idea, thank you!

I will ask all cat owners I know for the content of their cat's brushes and hopefully I can avoid the great rodent-killing in our workshop this winter.

Well if it helps I have a cat and in the past year he's caught four bats. XD The dachshund who shares a bed with the cat and myself catches all the mice though I've lost track of how many.

Bloody rats. We had them in our home last fall, tried traps and stuff and got several but they were breeding/coming in as fast as we could get them. It's a century home, and they can dig through concrete. They did some massive damage, and they were eating through anything we put food in. Eventually we called pest control and they brought in poison which took care of the rats (and the mice which we didn't mind so much, but nice that they were gone).

We went around the house and patched up ever where we could see, but this fall I found another one, and another hole dug through the foundation.

This was in Hamilton, so not too far from you. So I agree, kill it, it's not a native species to this area, and it's just going to end up being someone else's problem so you're not doing the world any good by saving it. Also make sure you don't have any more, and if you do, get pest control to bring in poison.

Animal enforcement got back to me and said this:

"Thank you for your e-mail. If you catch the rat, you can release it in a park nearby. Unfortunately, we do not pick up rats."

That would probably be a pretty boring comic book. I mean, I saw many kind of beasties down there (up to and including a live sheep), but no crocodile. Not even once in 11 years. What kind of sewer is it, seriously?

I prefer the sewer sheep for the uniqueness factor!
Compared to some comics I've read, it would probably be way more interesting.

Okay, now if possible, you've got to tell the story of the sewer sheep!

btw, this post reminded me of this story:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/14/georgia_man_shoots_armadillo_and_mother_in_law_one_bullet/

I would think twice about this.

If cats are present in close proximity to a rat or mouse population, the cats odour acts as an "aphrodisiac" and the rodents will breed at an accelerated rate.

Nature always finds a way!

Wow, I too wanna hear the sheep story now please. No crocodiles, hm, any giant Anacondas though? And knife fight tournaments, ever stumbled upon those?

Easy. Adopt one or more of that sweet little thing in my avatar. Little faqer is 5 months old and has already caught me 7 mice!

Is there an update on the rat situation?

Yes, and it's not good.

I think he left on his own. There is no sign of him in the garage. No chewed garabage, nothing. I last saw him under the stairs of my deck facing the garage. Someone had to have left the garage door open. I'm guessing that last day I saw him he wasn't able to get in or he would've been inside there instead of outside in the cold.

The garage isn't much warmer, but it does have shelter and food (aka my trash). There are plenty of external threats that the garage would shield him from, like people, stray cats, and raccoons. There are plenty of the last two roaming this area.