"god damned rats chewed through two of our fixed lines..."
Same thing happened to me and Coz on How the West Was Won in 1995. We'd left some fixed lines overnight, and when Coz jugged the up the last fixed line it looked like a rat had chewed all way through the sheath, exposing an inch of core. It wasn't at a spot exposed to any edge abrasion, so we blamed it on the wall rats!