RATS IN MY ROOM

   I live in a zoo.  Many mornings I wake up, wander into the living room, and see small creatures slithering across the carpet.  Blame it on our hunting cats, they have their own door.

   Today it was a 16-inch Cuban Anole lizard, its wide mouth hissing.  When we returned from errands hours later, it had been replaced by the mouse you see here.

    The good news is that the cat door is small, it would be hard for them to drag in anything as large as a wild pig.  What we have found are a variety of snakes, birds, lizards and frogs.  The cat that used to rip the heads off is gone.  The two that remain bring in their catches half-dead.  They are more fun to play with that way.

  Our dog, Pi, is perplexed by all this.  She does not attack but being the size of a small wild pig, she keeps the critters cornered while I grab the oven mitts, dust pan, and boxes.  This is a regular morning routine.

   The creepiest catch had us hearing eerie "Please, don't kill me!" warbles at 2 am.  We laid in bed, totally creeped, neither  of us wanting to face the blood-sucking chupacabra that was obviously in our living room.  The sound was like nothing else we'd ever heard, totally alien, hard to describe. 
  

 I mustered the courage to face the evil lurking in the dark and discovered a wailing victim. It was a small, distressed, tree frog.  We saved the little guy and all the others who still had a pulse.

   It's still hard to believe I entered our big room two years to see our orange cat looking up.  When I did too I noticed a small burrowing owl perched on a ceiling fan blade.  Like most of the others, I guess he had feigned death in hopes of a later escape.   Like most of the others, I was able to get her into a box and set her free.

   

 The cat door has a lock.  I suppose we could stop these gifts in the night... but what fun would that be?