Creature Catcher

Every summer we seem to end up with some kind of random animal in our pool. There is a creek not far from our house so it is not unusual to see a snake or four-legged creature scurrying around. Not that long ago, John and Tucker ran into the house from swimming screaming about a snake in the pool. Now, I am picturing something substantial that is at least the length of my arm. Once I got outside, I thought I would just look out into the pool and see a stick swimming around. Well, thankfully, I was wrong. The SNAKE was actually about the size of a worm. So much for the drama! My only concern was that something so small probably has brothers and sisters close by. Yikes!
I bring this up because we had another visitor on Friday morning. I was getting dressed and trying to actually be at work on time! I guess John had let Willy out to go to the restroom, when I hear John yelling, "There's a rat in the pool". Yep, I looked out the upstairs window and saw the creature swimming around looking for a place to get out. This rat was bigger than the snake visitor! John decides to use his hockey skills and scoop the rat out using a shovel. I leave him to work on this project while I continue to get dressed. About 25 minutes later, he and Tucker and still outside trying to scoop the rat, not really getting anywhere. I decided that they needed my "country girl" knowledge and assistance. I just went and got one of my fancy shmacy wal-mart plastic bags, sauntered outside and told John and Tucker to just watch! In one swoop, I scooped the rat into the wal-mart bag and gently place him outside our fence and close to the creek so that he could return back to his little home. Tucker was amazed at my ability to catch a drowning rat. Tucker gave me the Creature Catcher award for the day!