Cat and Mouse

A couple weeks ago, when we got back from picking up Olivia at school, we found Chicken "eating" a rat on the front porch. She had just caught it during the 15 minutes or less that we were gone. We went inside, after I told the kids not to touch the rat at all, because it could have diseases.

Chicken came inside the house with us, and she got down on the wood floor and was panting really, really fast. I thought she might be sick or something. Her breathing was so weird and she wouldn't walk right. I tried to get her to drink water, and she wouldn't. It took a long, long time for her to be back to breathing normally and acting right. I guess she just ran really hard when she was chasing the rat. Olivia was crying, because she thought Chicken was dying.

After we had been inside for a while, the kids wanted to play outside. I didn't want to let them out there, because I was afraid they would try to touch the rat. Olivia didn't want to go outside past the rat anyway. Finally, I decided it would be okay for them to play out there, with me watching. We had opened the door and were all standing right between the glass door and the front door when Chicken began to run toward the door with the rat in her mouth. I quickly pushed Nat the rest of the way from between the doors and slammed the front door. I was inside, and the kids were outside (with the rat). You should have heard how the 4 of us screamed in terror when we realized she had the rat in her mouth and was right by us trying to get into the house. After the door was slammed, I was still screaming inside and the kids were still screaming outside. The neighborhood probably thought something horrible was happening at our house. I started giggling when I realized how we all sounded.

Anyway, we eventually got everyone back in the house (without the rat). I told the kids to not touch Chicken or the kittens for a few days, because of the rat germs.

Of course, I called Billy to tell him about the rat. When he got home, he informed me that although it was big, it was a mouse - which I actually knew, but rat was a better description because it was the biggest mouse I had ever seen.

So, this pic of the "rat" doesn't show how big it was. I should have set something next to it to better be able to tell the size in the photo.