The Cottage Smallholder

Just seen a rat sitting on our dining room windowsill - outside, thankfully .   I banged on the window, it fell off the sill, then climbed back up the climbing hydrangea that's on the wall beside the window and peered in at me with, I swear (and I was!!! ), a  expression on it's face.  Damn cheek!

We've seen the odd one or two right down the bottom of the garden where the compost heaps, veg plots and waste ground are, but never so close (actually on!!) the cottage before.  There's a pond about 12ft from the dining room window, the thing jumped out of the hydrangea and bounded over to the pond, running around the outside of it before disappearing behind the pond irises.  I know they live near water, and I guess there's plenty of food around for it, we have half a dozen bird feeders in the shrubs near the pond, and our garden borders our neighbour's paddock (she has 2 horses, a large manure heap and storage bins of horse feed). 

I don't mind wildlife in the garden, we have plenty of it besides birds, bees and butterflies......mice and voles down the bottom of the garden, frogs, toads and newts, slow worms in the compost, foxes and badgers visiting at night.  But rats.....eewwww!

Any suggestions? (and not of the 'bung it in a stew' variety, thank you ).