One evening Gertrude went to her nest and fell asleep, but soon found herself wide awake. She felt like someone was watching her, but who? The next morning Gertrude asked Eggatha if she heard something last night. Eggatha said, "only snoring." Gertrude didn't get any sleep the next few nights. Neither did any of the other chickens.

Two nights later, there was a big hole in the coop floor. Now things were starting to get suspicious. Gertrude thought it was best to cover the hole for now, even though she wasn't happy with it. That very next night, Gertrude McCluck, woke up to find footprints. Gertrude observed the prints very carefully and found that they were very much different than her own. Gertrude decided that she would stay up that next night and see what made the footprints, but when Gertrude tried to stay up that night she fell asleep. When she woke up she found that there was no more food in the feeder and the water was all mucky, like something was playing in it. It made Gertrude never want to drink out of the water dish again. The next night Gertrude McCluck tried again, she knew that something was ruining the coop, and she wanted to know what, before it destroyed the whole coop.

The next night, Gertrude could hardly believe what she saw. It was about as big as her or bigger. Gertrude didn't know what it was. She had heard of mice, but they were too tiny. Then Gertrude thought about her clues. Let's see here, it must be nocturnal, because she never saw it in the day. She got out a book called "Little Critters." In it she found a picture of what she had seen destroying the coop. Under the picture it said, rat! Now Gertrude knew what it was, but how would she get rid of a rat?

That next morning, Gertrude asked the Guineas if they could come to the coop at night, and make a lot of noise, because that is a Guineas favorite thing to do. The Guineas agreed. So, the next night that is exactly what the Guineas did. The guineas were so loud and made so much noise that the rats ran away in a hole that Gertrude didn't even know was there.

Gertrude thought about what she would do about two holes that big. So the next morning Gertrude McCluck decided to make two underground storage closets. She put giant tin cans in the holes and then filled them with her favorite things, like her first feather, and her detective kit and magnifying glass. She kept one of the underground storage closets for herself and gave the other one to the rest of the chickens in the coop to share. They turned out to be the best underground storage closets that Gertrude and the chickens had ever had.