Was this in your garden? :>

EWWWWWW is right! UUUUGGGGLLLLYYYY!

Golly, I hope not!

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

We were at the zoo just the other day and while we were at the rat display (WHY do they even have rats and mice on display????? but anyways....) some guy was talking about the rat he saw at his property. Hmmmm.... does make a person wonder how rat-free Alberta is??? (unless he was from somewhere else ofcourse...)

Now that is UGLY! I'm sure my granddaughters would find some redeeming feature about it though...lol..savona

I wonder about that too Ang?

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

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:693294}}

I haven't seen any naked ones running around here : D, but yours might be the same as my rotten, infamous pocket gophers, Sharon. This link isn't to the exact one that we have around here, but the picture is quite good. Ours are fairly dark in colour and the teeth are very similar to the ones in your naked mole rat link. I'll see if I can dig up some more info.

Shauna

Here is a link that might be useful: Plains Pocket Gopher

Shauna, I bet you that's what it was....you just never seen these guys walking about above ground, that's why I thought it might be a rat.

DH said it must of been a pocket gopher too.

Sharon

That's quite the ugly critter...as soon as I saw it I thought of one thing:

"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

Actually I was thinking of the Friends where Rachel gets that hairless cat... haha. But now that you mention it, yes it looks like a ROUS!

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!
{{gwi:693296}}

Verena, who is Princess Bride? LOL

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

Sharon

Sharon, The Princess Bride was a movie - about 20 years ago... a funny/silly fairy tale. There were giant rats called ROUS.

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.

Verena, I agree with you, that was a good movie.

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

So, Gil - you took your "screen name" from your dad's cat? LOL

Actually yes, that is where my name came from. He used to be my cat but I moved to an apartment 9 years ago and left him with the folks because I couldn't supply him with the rats & squirrels he was used to. ;0) Then when I got a house dad wouldn't give him back. He's 11 now and just acts like a kitten.

How come you named him Spruce (she asked, blatantly hijacking Sharon's thread)?

'Cause he's a Russian Blue and he's grey like a blue spruce ;0) Does that make sense? No? Didn't think so.

{{gwi:693297}}

Sorry about the hijack!

Um, sure it made sense.... LOL Just like Java - because she's black (like coffee), because Allison likes her coffee, and because she was hyper like someone with too much caffiene. :) He's a beautiful cat, and i'm sure that if he came up against a naked mole rat, he finish it off in no time!

Spruce looks like my beloved Miss Keefer.......ahhhhhhh!

{{gwi:693298}}

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

Whose laughing now ;)

Sharon

Sharon, congratulations!!

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

Brenda

I do feel good Brenda, I used a Victor Blackbox Gopher & Mole Trap to catch this bugger! Home Hardware sells them.

I believe this is the Plains Pocket Gopher Geomys bursarius.

Sharon

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:693295}}

My trap looks similar to yours only mine is wooden. It has a little hole at one end and the mole (pocket gopher) tries to get to the hole and wants to plug it thereby getting caught in the trap. I also put a piece of Juicy Fruit chewing gum just outside the hole. Apparently they just love the smell of that particular chewing gum and are also really drawn to it. I got him the first night!!!

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

Hi all

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

Juicy Fruit chewing gum, LOL, I sure like to know who these people are who discover such remedies!

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

I have a mousetrap set up in the garage and put it occasionally in the potting shed/greenhouse ('cause I forget to shut the door for night sometimes). I have caught a couple dozen mice with the trap in the past few weeks. Our cat is too old and fat and is uninterested in catching mice. She would rather sleep and lie in the sunshine than do anything else.

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

Yeah, I have several tin cats around too Brenda, one in the garage, one in the greenhouse and a few out under shrubs. I also have poison block baits in Ziplock plastic containers with a little hole cut out on the side for the mouse to get into. That reminds me, that I should go out tomorrow and refill them. Also Cletis our indoor cat is an excellent hunter in the house, once in awhile I'll hear him crunching on one. LOL

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

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

Sharon

Caught another one today ;)

Guess what I seen today! I walked into the greenhouse and all of a sudden some pots fell over, here there was this little baby black kitten cuddled up in the corner. I went to pick him up so gently and he screech to high heaven and scurried out the greenhouse door in a flash. I set a dish of water and cat food out there in case he comes back.

Sharon

We now have 3 cats, 1 mom, 2 kittens living in the greenhouse, how they got there, who know?

Oh well, we wanted cats anyway.

That's great Sharon, hopefully they will keep the mice down this fall. Are any of them tame at all?

No, all 3 are very wild, timid and scared, maybe in time they'll welcome me.

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.