My suspicions of an r-a-t visiting the spilled food underneath the bird feeder were confirmed last night. I spent about fifteen minutes thinking I had to get rid of the rat, now, because…it’s a RAT! But then I realized a few things:

1. Quail, doves, a blue jay, a family of raccoons, and a family of squirrels that live under the neighbor’s garage all visit the yard. None of those bother me.

2. I know I don’t have rats inside my house. Toby is probably a good guarantee that I never will.

3. The rat sat up bravely and watched me with its little face and it looked JUST LIKE THIS:

So enjoy the sunflower seeds, Ratty. But stay out of sight of sight of the landlord because I doubt he has a laissez-faire policy for rats.