rick_the_rat_catcher
Rick Nieslen, a semi-retired wildlife mediator from Woodacre, applies a humane and simple, but expert, method: catch the animal outside, trap it inside, close off outside, and voila—“You have an impenetrable building.” David Briggs

A late-Autumn heat wave beat down on Woodacre one recent weekday morning as semi-retired pest exterminator Rick Nielsen cracked the seal on a sweating Pepsi bottle, took a swig and began rummaging for his most treasured tool—a mirror—from the back of his black Dodge pickup. Dressed plainly in plaid and grinning helplessly beneath wispy gray facial hair, Rick, 58, exhibited few, if any, of the iron attributes that would assumedly be possessed by the most…