The usual deal is that we put Rocky, our 70 lb viszla (think l33t hunting dog), to bed on the futon in "his" room (which doubles as my office), with a treat in a kong, and close the door. Otherwise, he'd be scratching at our bedroom door all night.

He's usually all about the treat, and will do whatever it is he thinks we want him to do to get it. It took a few days for him to be OK with being shut up in a room by himself, but he learned that "trick" pretty quickly. Also, yum, milkbone.

Last night, though, he seemed very reluctant to go into his room. Most nights, he's waiting on the futon when we get upstairs with the kong. He, somewhat reluctantly, followed me in. Sensing something wrong, I made a show of turning on the light, checking under the futon frame, finding nothing. So we waited til toxicfur came upstairs.

Another check behind the futon frame, and I saw a furry blob.

"We have a mouse," I said. This is not uncommon; the cat brings them in several times a week, often partially dismembered, and lets them go. "It's a very big mouse."

At this point the critter scampered across the floor. Observing the blur of brown fur, toxicfur said "It's a rat."

The perp was cornered under a radiator cover (removable cabinets cover the hot-water radiators in our house). We picked up bits of discarded clothing (did I call the room an "office"? More like a euphemism for "junk room").

We carefully pulled back the radiator cover, using a radio that happened to be handy to block one end of the escape route, and, upon close observation, the Monster Under The Bed turned out to be...

This:

A cute, fluffy, baby bunny.

What a fearsome beast (not). What a cowardly dog we have. At least the rabbit was in good shape, with no obvious injuries. We let him go seconds after the mugshot was taken.

The weekend report will wait til later. Also, toxicfur has to write a diary about the visit of her mother last week.