Mad as heck and I'm not gonna take it

I just deconstructed my compost bin because I've had enough. Found evidence of a rat in the house the other day: they had chewed a hole through the screen door, aka a rat door, which I thought I did a good job of blocking up - not. In the middle of the night I heard what I thought was chewing on the other screen door, so I thought there was a rat outside trying to get IN. Cookie started going crazy then trying to get at something under the couch, which led me to believe that there was a rat trying to get OUT. Turned on the light and sure enough, there it was underneath the couch, so I shooed it out with Cookie's help. Then when I got home last night and looked at the fruit bowl, there was a big chunk of avocado that had obviously been nibbled out. So enough with the cute way Cookie likes to watch the compost pile to see if a rat will come out. But I'm not giving up - I took apart the plastic compost bin so that they cannot hide out in there while they eat their dinner. Hopefully if the compost pile is open, the neighborhood cats, Jazz et al., will come and have those rats for a tasty treat. Eventually I will need to get a rat-proof compost bin, so if you know of any good solutions for me, please let me know. And I have to get the screen door repaired - not fun.