Rodents

I don't like rats any more than the next bloke, but they ain't wicked and cruel like people can be. They're just ratty in their habits.

~ Phillip Pullman

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Last fall I was home alone. Leslie had gone somewhere for the weekend. Suddenly, a mouse ran across the floor. I did not like that. I texted Leslie and told her I was going to get a couple of cats so we wouldn't have that problem. She told me I could not. I said I was going to get a puppy then. She told me I could not. Then she told me what kind of mouse trap she recommended.

I went to the store to get that. I left the garage door open because the store is less than two minutes from our house. When I came home, there was a cat sitting in our garage. It ran away when it saw the car, but still... this is proof to me that the universe or some being in the universe controls things and has a sense of humor that it uses often at my expense.

I was grateful that it was a mouse and not a rat. I was grateful that Leslie made rules about me not getting cats or a puppy. It was late at night and I'd have had to steal the cats or puppy and that's not really a thing I'm inclined to do.

We all lived happily ever after. Except that mouse which I assume ate some of the poison I put out for it and went off to die somewhere.