this REALLY HAPPENED!
Ed went out to turn the sprinkler off tonight and when he reached down to turn the spigot, the spigot felt furry and said, "Eep". Freaked, he ran back in to get a flashlight and me and this is what we found on our spigot.
Tried to net it to release it over the fence, but the creature started climbing the brick wall and escaped. A little later, we found Frosty playing with it was and we finally netted the little bugger and released it over the fence. It most likely crawled onto the spigot in the first place to escape Frosty's clutches.
Ed with mouse in net. If this is actually a rat (ew) and not a large mouse, don't enlighten me. Yes, we always use photos to document our nocturnal mouse hunts.