I found it when I was Googling. The other late evening, I was talking on the phone on the deck when all of a sudden I saw this creature walking across the driveway. I think it was a RAT! It was brown and had a long tail. I wasn't sure, so I ran into the house to get the flashlight, came out and it was no longer there.

You see, Alberta is suppose to be RAT-FREE. I asked DH if I should report this to the Department of Agriculture, but he said that I should make sure it was a rat before I phone them. So that is when I was looking up rodents and came upon this ugly naked guy!

Sharon

Thank goodness that the NMR is native to the drier parts of the tropical grasslands of East Africa, predominantly South Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The Naked Mole Rat (Heterocephalus glaber), also known as the Sand Puppy, or Desert Mole Rat, is a burrowing rodent and the only species currently classified in genus Heterocephalus. It is notable for its eusocial lifestyle, nearly unique among mammals, and for a highly unusual set of physical traits that enables it to thrive in a harsh, underground environment; including a lack of pain sensation in its skin, and a nearly cold-blooded metabolism.

Savona, there are other photos at Google that are just as gross, here is another one, these quys really need to see a dentist!

Sharon

Shauna

DH said it must of been a pocket gopher too.

Sharon

"But Westley, What about the ROUS's??"

"Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist"
***GRAAAARRRR***

;o) (Anyone else having 'Princess Bride' flashbacks??)

Verena

We have actual rats around here, my Dad's cat caught one and left it as a present. It doesn't look like much in the pic but it was pretty big!

Gil, you're dad has a good hunter kitty.....they sure do have long tails!

Sharon

Spruce (Dad's cat) sure is a good hunter, he has figured out how to get squirrels too. He eats them but leaves the tails under the deck so they know how many he caught ;0) Mom says they hardly have to feed him in the summer.

Sharon, the Princess Bride is a movie that came out in 1987 that if you haven't seen, you need to rent. In one of the scenes, Westley, actor with a British accent, has to go through a swamp where large man-eating rat type creatures live. I love Westley's "As you wish" saying throughout the movie, too. It is a silly, comical movie that I could quite easily watch again.

Here is an overview of the movie...

http://www.reelviews.net/movies/p/princess_bride.html

I have seen rats, mice, voles, shrews over the years, and caught a mole (pocket plains gopher) the other day in my raspberry patch. Within seconds the dog took it from me to dispose of. Whether she ate it or what I haven't seen it since. Baby mice without their hair are 'ugly' but there again, within seconds they are 'down the hatch' when the dog is around. But when you think of it, when baby birds are just hatched, they are quite 'ugly' also.

Brenda

Sorry about the hijack!

Wella, look at what I caught today, the so called RAT (pocket gopher)!

Whose laughing now ;)

Sharon

Doesn't it feel good to finally catch the little guy? What did you use to bait him with?

Brenda

I believe this is the Plains Pocket Gopher Geomys bursarius.

Sharon

Last week I also got the large raccoon that was coming each night to my corn patch. My dad gave each of us kids a live trap for Christmas last year (can you tell we all live on acreages or farms?). It is a large long plastic box with the one end being open and having the trap door and springs at the open end. Took me three nights to catch him. I baited him with cat food and some pork bones. Once I caught him all I did was to stand the live trap upright and add water. No more problems in the corn patch!!

Brenda

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I took an unexpected trip to Owen Sound for lacrosse and was gone for a couple of weeks.

Way to go, Sharon. There's the ugly teeth and the ugly front claws for all the world to see. Great picture. I think I'd better get myself a few of those traps, too. Maybe I can catch whatever it was that destroyed so much of my garden this winter.

Shauna

These square traps were just purchased the other day, I caught another one this morning. I'm figuring once you catch one their scent is left on the box, as well they see that bright hole that needs to be covered up.

We used to have the round ones (the original Blackhole Trap), but I looked high and lo for them and can't find them anywhere!

Thankfully we do not have Raccoons around here, at least I haven't seen one. Knock on wood Maisy has never confronted a Skunk or Porcupine either around the acreage.

We were supposed to get those 3 cats earlier in the season, but the lady gave them to someone else. I think there's another lady up the road who has kittens that are ready to give away. I would like to get them before winter sets in so that they can get comfortable with their new enviroment and catch those mice!

Sharon

Skunks, mice, porcupines, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, bear, deer, voles, gophers, ants...all par for living in the country. Porcupine quills in a dog's mouth or on their body or hearing the howling of the coyotes in the valley below us is just something that is no big deal any more. But it is definitely worth all those creatures just to live in the country.

Sharon, kittens will be great! Play with them lots so they get tame. Got a barn or shed and some strawbales all ready for them for the winter?

Brenda

http://www.biconet.com/traps/GIFs/TimCatOpen.jpg

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/425N.jpg

Sharon

Sharon

Oh well, we wanted cats anyway.

I've been trying to lure them into the pumphouse where DH put up a heat lamp, its much warmer in there since its insulated and up high off the ground.