One night in the early 1980's, I awakened when I heard our son, Owen, come into the house from a date. He made the usual sounds of opening and closing doors, when all of a sudden I heard the sound of quick heavy steps coming down our hallway. He excitedly announced that he saw a rat in his bedroom. The kids always called mice rats, so I replied "You mean a mouse?" He quipped back "No mama, I mean a rat; I know what a mouse looks like". I knew then he had really seen one. I pondered on the situation a few seconds and told him to just shut the door and we could get him in the morning. He adamantly let me know that he did not want to bed down with a rat in his room. By then, Wayne was wide awake and told him the rat would not bother him, so he unwillingly complied and went to bed.

The next morning, we found the rat had escaped under the bedroom door which was off the floor a couple of inches, and was somewhere in the house. We also found he got in the house by gnawing a hole around the kitchen sink drain and came into the house through the spring type door. He could get in, but not back out. I filled his entrance with steel wool and searched for the intruder to no avail. I can not stand a mouse in the house, let alone a rat. I found damage in the laundry room where he had tried to gnaw a hole by the door.

The third day when I got up and went to the kitchen, I heard him under my dishwasher and called for Wayne. That was a big mistake as Wayne tried to pull the dishwasher out, not knowing it was attached to the cabinet with screws. I phoned our two sons who lived near by for help, so Wayne went on out to feed the cattle. I was still in my nightgown, but was not going to lose any time making a runway from the dishwasher to the utility room and back door. I placed a board under the refrigerator so he could not go under it and used paneling for a corral to herd him to the back door.

Wayne came in from feeding just as I finished my rat pathway. He started jerking at the dishwasher again. Our son Jon, who just arrived, told him to wait as the dishwasher was screwed into the cabinet. Wayne got the brilliant idea of sending George, our little toy dachshund, under the dishwasher to run the rat out. I was standing there in my “one size fits all” flowing nightgown watching the event when George went in and came running out with the rat running straight toward me. All of a sudden I heard the most God awful screaming and soon discovered it was me! I was standing on top of a kitchen chair. I did not realize I was making a sound, nor knew how in the world I got on top of that chair with my arthritic stiff joints. Wayne had a short board whacking at the rat and missing each time and Jon was also clubbing at him too. George was giving chase and yapping loudly while chasing the rat and trying to miss the whacks of the guys. Jim came in laughing at the sight he saw.

George finally caught up with Mr. Rat. The rat suddenly bit George's upper lip and hung on. The rat was squealing, George was yipping, and Lois was babbling, Wayne was cussing, Jim was laughing and Jon just stood there with a huge grin on his face. Wayne grabbed the rat with George dangling from its teeth and threw both of them out the door. Only then did George get loose. I got off the chair very carefully. The rat met his demise and Jim and Jon left to go tell someone about the funny story. If someone had videoed the event, we would have been much richer today from the prize money won from "Funny Videos”.