Seriously, when I first moved into my new house in Boston, two months in, I saw a little mouse in my kitchen and I literally lost my shit. I've never even imagined seeing a freaking mouse in my living space. My roomies were like "ooh don't worry, that's normal. We can just call the exterminator tomorrow and it'll be all good." Apparently this is a totally normal thing in large cities in the East Coast like New York or Boston. Back in Bay Area it was normal to see mice or racoons in the streets, but I never even considered the possibility of seeing one inside my house.
It's interesting how tiny cultural differences (having cats in the city) can cause you to make such assumptions about human living conditions. Before moving to US, I would consider seeing mice an alarming and totally abnormal situation. It's like seeing a snake, or scorpion, or bat in your house.
When I lived in Texas, my co-workers who lived in the countryside would complain about scorpions. Scorpions liked one co-worker's closets especially, so she always had to shake out her clothes before getting dressed.
34 years old, never once seen a rat in a city setting, living in the capital, Ankara.