WARNING - RATS!

Last Saturday Amelia and I went to visit her cousins Katie and Jordan. They met us in the yard each holding something that looked suspiciously like a rat. They have a HUGE yard and as I walked from the street closer to the kids I thought, "No way, those are NOT really, they must be Fureal Pets or something" but I could also see them moving - very realistically. Jordan yelled, "We got rats! We found them crawling around the backyard, so we just grabbed them." This normally would have cracked me up, because I am the aunt that isn't afraid of spiders or snakes or mud...but I am HORRIFIED of rats! I don't think I even knew how afraid of them I was until Katie ran up to me carrying one. "We're just babysitting them!" She yelled as she got dangerously close to me. At this point Amelia is already on the front steps playing with the rat in Jordan's hands and I am paralyzed in the middle of the yard.

"Don't come near me, with that thing!" I yelled to Katie. Having no clue how truly scared I was she ran right up to me. Tears formed in my eyes, I could feel the need to get sick coming on. So I walked backward QUICKLY! Tammie called Katie off...told her I was really scared. Katie looked at me in amazement. We proceeded into the house...the kids AND the rats went to the basement. They were cute - I can say that...but they were rats!

I have good reason for being scared of rats, when I was a kid we had a corn field at the end of our street - when they started to build houses in the corn field the rats came to our neighborhood. All I remember was the boards on the bottom of doors, not being able to leave the dog food on the floor of the garage as normal and being VERY VERY scared. This experience obviously haunts me...my sister said she's grossed out by them too, but she could get passed it. NOT ME!
Amelia on the other hand LOVED them. Right before we left she went to say good-bye to the rodents...I stood outside the playroom as Tammie took pictures. Jordan came around the door - with the rat in his hands....I SCREAMED! Katie laughed her HEAD OFF! My brother-in-law, Mike just shook his head. IT WAS TIME TO GO HOME! Amelia knew the rats were going home the next day. She wanted to go see them again...obviously we didn't!

*If the photos or collage look funny, it's because I basically did it with my eyes closed...