"RAPATOUILLE"

You may not know this, be we live on a ranch of sorts: Ranchito de Gonzales. Life is always in bloom at the Gonzales Ranch. This doesn't come without tragedy. The Nakai family can attest to this. Every time they come to visit the grim reaper pays a visit too (or some other horrifying event occurs).

This is not to say that the Nakai's are the cause of the series of unfortunate events, it just seems to coincide with their visits.

The first visit was accompanied by the death of two of the baby chicks. The second time three of the young hens were torn from limb to limb by the huskies, right before our very eyes. My sister, Jennifer, was mortified. On July 4th, about a year ago, my sisters Jennifer and Melissa visited with their families. Tragedy struck when the huskies were scared by fireworks, breaking out of the back, heading for the highway... my husband's black and white Siberian husky, Fleur, was struck and killed.

Shortly thereafter two of my nieces were bitten by Sparky (the guard dog). Jennifer vows that she will n-e-v-e-r have pets because every time she comes to visit we have some type of trauma/drama with an animal or two (pets or not).

Recently, my sister and her family came for a visit over the weekend. Friday was quiet and uneventful. Saturday was busy and relatively uneventful. Although Jennifer didn't appreciate that "Captain" our pet opossum was playing "possum" in the garage. She said it was creepy (I tend to agree). After church, on Sunday, Jennifer and I were sitting on the couch relaxing; Victor and Andy disappeared (again); and the kids were outside playing with the baby Rabbit, Carmel. Allisa came in running and shouting:

"Mom! Mom! there is a cute brown mouse in the planter!"

Jennifer said: "Don't touch it!"

I was ready to dismiss the whole thing until... Until the kids started yelling that they had caught it. Jennifer about had a cow-level heart attack (that's for you Diablo fans). Both Jennifer and I had pictured a cute brown mouse about 2 inches long infested with fleas and carrying some type of lethal virus. We could only be so lucky... Within seconds, Evan comes in with a critter carrier that was filled with a large brown rat with orange teeth. We were not pleased, to say the least.

Jennifer is screaming:

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! That's not a mouse. That's a RAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!! Get it out of here."

I, of course, am accustomed to such visitors (living in the middle of strawberry fields) and I said to Asilyn:

"Just shake it up a bit; let it go; and tell it to not come back."

Aislyn shook the critter carrier. I told her to stop (I was just kidding). The kids were going to release the little beast into the street and we stated most firmly: "I don't think so."

The moms were certain that it would come back immediately. We instructed Aislyn and Evan to take the nasty vermin to the drainage ditch at the end of the street. Of course, sure enough, kids being kids, they played "show-and-tell" with the neighbors. I yelled at them. Evan and Aislyn eventually completed their task; returned; and reported:

"We opened the box but it wouldn't come out. So, we closed it. Got closer to the hole in the ditch; re-opened the box and chucked it into the hole."

I am quite certain that it died. Jennifer can only hope. Two hours after this episode, Jennifer still has the heebie-jeebies. (AKA Jibblies). Now, "why?" may you ask, do we have a picture of a rat. Well, when the dads finally came home, Ethan was telling the story to the dads. He said:

"Dad, Evan caught a rat. It looked like "Rapatouille". Yes he said "RAP", not a typo.

We asked him if the rat could cook and Ethan said:

"No. The rat wasn't blue."

Good thing. I would much rather have Victor cook the Chile Verde than the rat. Jennifer wouldn't have eaten or stayed around long enough for it to even try cooking.

So, now Jennifer and I have been sitting on the couch trying to recuperate from the ordeal while writing you this story. Mom says you feel better about a horrible experience after you tell eleven people. I guess Jennifer is going to have to start writing on Vocal.

I feel better already. :)