My uncle had a hunting cabin near the cypress swamps of Sopchoppy, FL and we would go down there for Thanksgiving some years. One year, I must have been 11-12 years old, I heard this loud scratching at my bedroom door while I was trying to sleep and the next morning saw a bunch of the carpet gone just on the other side of the door and a hole chewed out of the doorframe. The next night, I sat on a chair in the kitchen where the bedroom door was visible and watched for whatever critter it was that was trying to break in. I thought I was well-armed with a wiffleball bat until I saw a rat emerge from behind a couch that was about 10-12 inches nose to the base of his tail. I tried to talk my dad into letting me sleep somewhere else but he assured me that the door should hold him off for the night. He and my uncle set up a few glue traps around the house that night. The next morning, all of the glue traps were gone except for one that was wadded into a ball and stuck behind the oven.
That was the last we ever saw of Ruettiger.
Oh, and I found $5.