Oh, No, I didn't....EWWWWW!!!!

Oh. My. Goodness. I just killed Templeton. Yes, that's right. I just killed a rat. YUCK!!! Imagine this:

Three grown women with 8 children are happily frolicking in the pool on a hot summer day. Everyone is happy and relaxed and the children are squealing with delight. Suddenly, the oldest boy points out that a rat, yes, a RAT, is crawling by the pool. I quickly realized that I had to kill it, but man oh man, I did not want to do the dirty job. My friend, Janie, pointed out that we needed a shovel. I knew she was right but I still didn't want to do the honors. What ensued was quite comical. The children all jumped out of the pool, the other adult jumped in a chair, paralyzed with fear (okay, I'm using some dramatic license), and everyone was running around. The squeals turned into screams of terror as we ushered the children inside the back door. The rat was clearly sick because it was not running as it should have. It sat there right beside my sweet babies swimming wing and a green surf skate, looking at all of us with its nasty beady eyes. Yuck yuck yuck. I screamed and handed the shovel to Janie. She took a swing at the nasty rat, and he fell into the pool. A shovel immersed in a pool becomes impossibly heavy, and it was tough to get the yucky rat out of our now-infested pool. Janie screamed, "He's drowning!" I took the shovel and managed to pull him out of the water and bang him with the shovel until he was dead. I am gagging now simply telling this story. EWWWW. Rat guts are disgusting!! I started gagging and could not get his gut-spilling lifeless body on the shovel. Janie was brave and got him on the shovel. Meanwhile, the wee babes are all laughing, crying, and screaming in mixtures of terror and sheer delight. One child was talking about the rat being one of God's creatures. Yeah yeah yeah whatever. It's a RAT and rats deserve to DIE! Oh. My. Goodness. I was checking on the baby still strapped in the a/c running car when Janie and I traded the baton and I had the honor of dumping Templeton into the canal beside our house. I could not look at the rat as I carried it to the water for fear I would hurl. Upon returning back to the house, I had the honor of cleaning up rat guts and bleaching everything in sight. I called the pool man and the pool has already been shocked so that we don't pick up rabies or some other nasty rat disease. Goodbye dear Templeton, I sure hope you didn't leave behind any friends or family!!!!