Oh Rats

It's not always good to be right. Sometimes I wish I was wrong......For instance, say, when you feel like you have something living in your attic. Here's the story. And I promise I don't embellish the truth....even if my husband says that I do.
So over the last few weeks I have noticed some strange sounds coming from the attic. It's like little footsteps sometimes and sometimes it's like a rummaging through pipes type of sound. Clanking, scurrying,...you know it sounds like there's something living up there. I casually mention this to Gary a few times and he does his usual, Okay babe kind of look, like yeah, there's something living in our attic...wink wink. He tells me it's probably the pipes or just the normal attic sounds. I tell him that it sounds more strange than just attic sounds and I feel like maybe it's rats or maybe even a person living up there. I only half way kind of jokingly ask if he thinks a person could be living in our attic. You never know....this house was vacant for a long time before we bought it. He assures me there is nobody living up in the attic and again tells me it's just house sounds, maybe the water heater or ac vents or squirrels on the roof. It's not squirrels on the roof....I already know what the squirrels on the roof sound like. I identified that the first few days we lived here. Anyway.... fast forward to earlier this week (or wait...is that rewind) I am walking around upstairs and I am headed towards the girls bathroom and I notice this black little thing on the carpet. I look closer to see what it is because it's really small but big enough to catch my eye as I'm walking by. It kind of looks like a worm or some kind of a little bug. SO I get some toilet paper and pick it up and upon examination I am almost positive it is rat poop. Oh boy.. I am smiling in my head because I can't wait to show Gary. I go downstairs yelling.....PAPA!!!! He's in the kitchen so I go down there with rat poop in hand and go up to him and put the toilet paper in his face and say.....WHAT'S THIS? He has to pull his head back because who can see when something is that close to your eyes. He looks at it and tells me he does not know and asks what it is. I put it down and open up the paper and show him this little pellet looking thingy. He's like..." Oh that looks like rat poop". A ha! So we do have rats.....then he asks me where I found it. So then I tell him I found it up stairs near the girls bathroom which happens to be right under the door to the attic. He says...."Oh yeah the alarm guy opened up the attic today and it must have fallen out when he opened the door" . " So we have rats in the attic?", I say.
I knew it!!! Except now I don't know what to do about the rats and I'm freaking out because we have RATS in the attic. Do we leave them alone? I mean it's not like they are bothering us. Do we poison them? Do we set out rat traps? Then my mind starts thinking about these poor little rats. I don't think I want to kill them. If I can hear them playing around up there then surely I will hear them cry when they get stuck in the little rat traps. Oh dear...what's a girl to do. What do you do when you have rats in your attic?