the enemy.

Greg is on night float this week.
He worked all last night.
He's upstairs sleeping.
And I just saw a rat on our front porch.

I passed the front door on my way to open a window for some airflow, the corner of my eye had caught sight of a large blob and in less than a second my brain registered, "something is not normal. grey blob, could be a huge toad, I should call Ray to see it... but they're darker gray than that... maybe it's dead... or maybe it's just a gray leaf" at which point I walked backwards to peak out the front door windows.

And I still was not sure what I was seeing because it didn't look like this...

or this...

The creature I saw sniffing looking around my front porch step at first looked more like this...

only not so fluffy.

I thought it was a mouse.  

I ran to get our in house pest controller, Georgia, who was napping on the BACK porch (wrong place wrong time, girl). The highlight of her day yesterday was killing a lizard who'd gotten inside the house. A mouse would make her week (and mine). 

I grabbed her and sprinting to the front door I prepped her for battle.

I looked out the window and didn't see it, but that didn't mean the creature wasn't somewhere out of my view,  probably right next to the door waiting to fight or flee as soon as I opened the door. 

So I cracked the door open for a second sending Georgia flying outside and plastered my face on the window to watch the show.

Nothing happened.

She landed with a soft plop and just stood there looking around. 

It was gone.

I even went outside and moved stuff around, no skittering mice anywhere.

I came inside and wanted to go tell Greg, but brain said, "he worked all night, he's sleeping, he's napping, he's asleep. wait til he wakes up... in 5 hours. walk away from the stairs."

So I turned to Google instead of my husband (terrible idea... I'll spare you the terrible rat infestation pictures I saw... thank you Google, I will never sleep easily again).

That's when I discovered that it was not a mouse but a rat.

Not just any rat, but a roof rat.

I had a roof rat on my front porch.

This is what Greg was protecting me from last month when he said: "Toni, it may not have been a mouse."

Me: "nonono! don't say it!!"

silence

Me: "So, can we please get a kittty?!?"

Greg: "Sure."

Looking back I'm glad it was gone when we were out there.  

Georgia is still a kitten and while she kills all the moths and lizards in the house, I'm pretty sure this thing would have taken her out.

Because, let's be honest.  The rat looked like this... and yes, they do exist.

until we meet again, roof rat.

Greg, maybe we should get a dog.

PS. A small wire fell off my desk onto my foot while I was writing this and I screamed and jumped 3 feet in the air, because I thought it was the rat and the rat is obviously out to get me.

And here's a pic of the boys to banish rodents out of your mind.

sweltering heat. "Jimmy stop spraying me! You're getting me cold and wet!"