Critters

I was reading over at http://tunagirl.blogspot.com/ about her adventure with a roach. Very funny.

Living in the country we have had our share of strange and invasive critters. We have rats the size of cats in one of the barn. Or I should say we HAD rats the size of cats. We have a few barn cats who take great delight in sending them to their critter maker in the great beyond. And I am eternally grateful for them.
I've mentioned before the giant naked mole like creature who used to live in another barn. He was at least fifteen pounds, HUGE, gray and naked. And she had an attitude, let me tell you.
My son and I encountered her one day as she chased him out of the barn, him screaming, running back towards the house, arms flailing, cartoon like. I happen to be sweeping the concrete landing and had a broom already in my hand. As she ran after my son, I positioned the broom like a baseball bat. I yelled at her to stop. She ignored me. When he ran past me and she ran towards me, hissing and spitting...I hit a home run on her ass. I smacked her back at least two feet. She rolled over, looked at me strange. It was sorta a look of puzzlement, mixed with a tinge of respect. She walked slowly back to the barn, occasionally looking back at me. We discovered a few days later that she had babies in the barn, this being the reason she chased my son out of the building.
After that she would just walk around, she never chased anyone again, but she would hiss and keep walking. To this day, I have NO idea what they were. I've tried to figure out what kind of critter they were, but have never found anything like them. Huge mutant moles. Once her babies were big enough to move on, they all left.

We've also had mice that would just come in the house and think they owned the place. Our inside cat is a blessing. A born hunter. Most times the mice fly like the wind, but now and then we get one who just takes his sweet bippy time. The cat looks at them like..."Why are they moving so slow? is this a trap?" Then she goes into hunting mode and the mouse is ...no more. I love my hunter kitties. They take no prisoners.