Late one night a few weeks ago, I woke to an odd, snuffling noise in my bedroom. For a moment I lay in terror, persuaded that a robber had bypassed the alarms and now hovered above me, dagger in hand. I reached over and turned on the light. In the corner of the room was my black cat, Mike, with his paw deep in one of my shoes. As I watched, he pulled forth a small, gray field mouse.

He tossed it to the floor. It tried to run for safety, but Mike reached out a paw and swiftly batted it back. Again it ran. Again he swatted it back. After a few minutes of this ersatz hockey, the mouse was motionless, either too afraid to move or stunned into submission.

Humanitarian that I am, I grabbed a nearby trash basket, scooped up the still-living mouse, and deposited him outside into the alley. There he will have far more to fear than my now quite-proud cat, for there lurk rats who rival my cats in size and whose appetites are voracious.

Two years ago, the Back Bay and the Fenway areas of the city saw an enormous surge in their rat populations. Boston’s normally brutal winters have a salutatory effect (from our point-of-view) on the rat population, interrupting their breeding cycles and cutting down their numbers. But the winter of 1994/1995 was unusually mild and the rats kept on propagating. Not only were there more of them, but they were also more aggressive, since they were competing against each other for the limited food supplies around them.

Somewhat belatedly, the city caught on to the problem and began aggressively to battle the rats. The fight, reminiscent of a major war campaign, included a block-by-block assessment of the rat conditions, baiting and poisoning throughout the Back Bay and Fenway, and door-to-door enforcement of the sanitary codes.

The effort was successful, and the rat population was eventually brought under control.

Last winter was a good year for skiers and zemmiphobes. Long, snowy, and harsh, it dampened the rat population better than human means could ever do. And this year? One inevitable consequence of the winter that wasn’t will be a repeat of the rat explosion of 1995. To make matters worse, the city is planning to reconstruct a number of Back Bay alleys. That reconstruction will disturb and destroy many rat warrens, sending them out to the surface looking for new homes.

Unlike two years ago, however, the city is ready. Sterling Saunders, head of the city’s rodent control division, is already out in the field preparing for the rat wars. But the city can only do so much. Rats survive because they are given food and a place to live. The only way to permanently decrease the rat population is to cut down on garbage and seal up holes in buildings and houses through which rats can enter.

The day after my own rodent experience, the exterminators were out, closing off a few tiny holes that gave the mice access. My advice: inspect your home, place trash out the morning of pickup (not the evening before), clean around areas where you place your trash, and call Rodent Control if you see an infestation.

And please, be careful putting on your shoes in the morning.

* * * Rodent Control can be reached by calling 635-5352.