In case you need a reason to keep the toilet lid closed

I consider this a public service announcement. You'll appreciate it I'm sure :o)

Yesterday before heading out to pick up Grandma & Grandpa from the airport, Bird and I headed into the studio so I could print some things for preschool (only printer in the house is in my studio). Phylo came too of course - my little shadow. As soon as he stepped through the door he started whining and desperately wanted to get into the bathroom. He'll hardly ever push through a door on his own and will typically whine & complain till we open it for him. I told him to hang on and chill out and to my surprise he shoved the door with his head and ran in the bathroom. Then he really started whining!

I finished my printing stuff then we went in to check on what the heck the dog's going crazy about. He was actually drooling! I looked behind the toilet, in the shower, etc. and didn't see anything. Sometimes he can go crazy for little things - spiders and whatnot. Or for things we can't see like when there was a mouse family in the garden bed. So I started teasing and egging him on a little. "Go get it Phylo!" & "What is it boy?". Then I jokingly lifted the toilet lid...and thought confusedly for a moment, "Is that a kitten?" In the next nanosecond I realized it was a healthy sized drenched rat (!!!) and dropped the lid from my fingers. I seriously didn't get why/how there was a rat in the toilet? And the next thought was how in the world to get him out?? So of course we called Jared who said to flush him (haha, thanks so much for the help hon). This obviously wouldn't have worked - and anyway, I had realized at this point that he had come from that direction anyway (a true sewer rat!) and Bird told me also that rats don't go down the toilet. SO...my next thought was to open the window, then the toilet lid, then quickly close the bathroom door. But Jared shot down that idea saying it wasn't cool to let him go into our yard or the neighbor's yard. I really wasn't into the idea of the rat losing his life :(

Then we remembered I needed to go pick up Jared's parents and decided to make it Grandpa's problem, heheh. He was happy to help and...well, I'll spare you the details. It wasn't awful but I'll definitely say I've cringed a bit every time I've lifted the toilet lid since then. By the way, we have a really heavy ceramic lid out here - a plastic one wouldn't have held him in and then you know, I would have had a totally different scenario on my hands - yikes!

So anyway, keep your toilet lids closed - this could happen to you too!

You're welcome :o)

hugs, Devon