Annie Get Your Gun!

Well, the rat saga continued!! We thought we only had two rats in the barn. I bought some tasty rat baits and the next day they were all gone!! I bought some more and set them out. They were nibbled on as well! The package said that it would take five days for the poison to work. Sure enough five days later Rat #1 lay dead outside the barn. The next day rat #2 was seen slowly walking in a dazed stupor barely breathing. He was put out of its misery. Yeah!!! We thought we had gotten all the rats. The day after that, one of our little chihuahuas came running up to us with a gift in its mouth!! Yes, another rat!!! Whoo hoo!! The thing was near death as well. This went on for a few days of finding dead rats in and around the barn!! The count was now up to 7!! I can't believe we had this many!! A couple of days later another was found dead. EIGHT RATS!!! ARrrgghh!!! A few more days passed and no more dead rats!! The rat baits were untouched. Finally, we had gotten them all!!! I went to go help my kiddo in the barn feed the horses when one of our other dogs started freaking out over some wrapped up fence wire in the barn. I walked over to where she was and saw something furry inside the wire. Dead rat? Sick rat? We poked at it with some bailing wire and that thing jumped sky high!! Neither sick nor dead!!! It was stuck inside the fencing wire and I wasn't going to wait for it to come out. I called Tom on the phone to see if he wanted me to shoot it with the .22? Haven't had much luck with that thing when I was trying to scare dogs. Almost hit a kid on his bike!! Didn't mean to, but was told never to hold the rifle again! :) I figured this would be close range and could put the gun right into the fence wire. We went and grabbed the rifle. Rayne had the phone as Tom listened in on what we were doing. I turned the safety off, aimed the gun right at the rat and pulled the trigger. The rat didn't do anything!! I poked at it with the baling wire and the thing jumped!! How could I miss, the rat was HUGE!!! It looked like a baby possum!!! I shot again and poked at it, still that sucker jumped!!! I tried it again, this time putting the muzzle of the rifle right at what I thought was its head! Pulled the trigger and the thing ran inside the fence!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!! I had some kind of freakin' miracle rat!!! Did it have nine lives!!! Did it think it was a cat!!! My husband is telling me I'm missing the stupid thing, but I know I'm not!!! I have the bloody gun on the body of this goofy animal!!!!!! Now, I'm getting mad!!! This sucker is going down!! I am not going to have it in my barn!!!! I put the tip of that gun right against its fur and pulled the trigger again. Rayne and I are looking at each other thinking this is NUTS!!! I have shot this rat FOUR times!! It has to be dead!!! I poke it one more time with the baling wire. Finally, it does not move!!! But, I am not taking the fencing down to see if it is really dead. When Tom came home that night he pulled the fencing off it and even he said, it was a big rat!!! Finally, someone believes me about how big this guy was!!! He picked it up and sure enough it had three holes in it!! But, you know what my wonderful husband says to me? "Four shots at close range and you still miss one!!!" LOL!! But, I did shoot him twice in the stomach and once in the head!! That rat was a fighter, I'll give him that!!

So, now the rats are gone from our barn, and I'm going to the shooting range and taking lessons!