I see you are in New Jersey. You mentioned your neighbors retaining wall, which I assume you live on or by the water. Rats love to live around water and they swim. YUCK!
We live on a Key on Sarasota Bay. We have citrus trees and they attract rats. They call them Citrus Rats here. They climb trees and can jump from branches to your roof etc. They hollow out much of the citrus outside. Our neighborhood is nice but we live right on the water. One night when my husband was out of town I went outside to let "Jasmine" our little Silky Terrier potty. It was dusk. She since has passed from old age RIP Jassy..... but anyway she suddenly darted toward our orange tree and I saw he was hugging something that she caught. EWWWW....It was one of those Citrus Rats. I screamed and she suddenly let go and it vanished through our hedge. I was so grossed out.
Oh, just one thing that I thought was funny. On Siesta Key someone was in a restaurant by the village/beach area. This customer looking out at the pretty view of the water suddenly said, "Oh my gosh...is that a RAT!!!!!!" The waiter, thinking quickly said, "Oh no...not a RAT....it's a "Siesta Squirrel."
