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Some family visited Jeremy and me this weekend. My sister-in-law and niece and nephew. We had a great time, and the kids especially had a great time playing with the dogs. Greta and Cassie just get so excited when visitors are at the house. Their enthusiasm was maybe a little too much for Meredith, who is 8, but when the dogs calmed down, she was right in there petting them.

The kids walked with us yesterday morning. I let Meredith and Garrett, 11, take turns walking Cassie because she's pretty easy going on a walk. Our walk started out with a big surprise though. I was still walking both dogs when they pulled over to the grass on our right to sniff. This isn't anything unusual, but then they started pulling a little harder, and I could see they were after something. I looked down and saw something moving in the grass. Then I saw its little tail. It was a rat. And just as quickly as I identified it, Greta was trying to scoop it up in her mouth. I pulled and pulled and screamed and screamed. The rat wiggled out of Greta's mouth, across the sidewalk and into more grass. Garrett's response: "Cool! Can I kick it?" Why he wanted to kick the rodent, I have no idea. But I told him no and that we needed to get away as quickly as possible.

In all our walks in the neighborhood, I've never seen a rat. We had mice one summer in our garage. Greta would chase them like it was her job, and Jeremy eventually caught them with mouse traps.

The irony in seeing the rat yesterday? It was in an exterminator's yard.

And in other doggy news: I know this has been all over the news today, but in case someone has missed it, a 4-year-old boy in England flushed his puppy down the toilet! Thankfully, the puppy survived. The boy said he was trying to give his puppy a bath. Kids, don't try this at home.