Lingering issues

The back of our apartment faces out onto an alley which is overrun with all kinds of vines. We can only open our bathroom window a crack because of all the foliage, and we do so whenever we shower since there's no ventilation in the bathroom at all. The first time we cracked it open, Jared mentioned that there were what looked like some mouse droppings on the outside window ledge. I didn't give it much thought; it was the middle of winter and I wasn't too concerned about a lot of mice scurrying around.

Now that warmer weather is gradually making an appearance, I'm starting to get a little concerned. I often leave the window open the whole time I'm getting ready for work. If I turned my back for a couple of minutes, could a mouse (or worse - a rat) get in?

I've been mulling this over but Jared and I both concluded it's unlikely to happen. The other day as I was thinking about this issue again, I remembered that there were neighborhoods on my mission where it was rumored by the locals that rats occasionally crawled up through the sewer into toilet bowls. Given the state of the plumbing, this was entirely possible. In fact, some people made quite a production of making sure their children always put the toilet seat down and wouldn't let their very small children use the bathroom without first checking under the lid themselves. I was never sure whether this was pure urban legend or rooted in fact, but I didn't particularly want to find out firsthand.

Anyway, I have no such concerns about our toilet here in the SLC, but nonetheless I have had an uneasy feeling the past couple of days, like something could come up and grab me by the behind. Ugh.