# What is it \[animal caught in house\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 12, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552 "2012-10-12T19:42:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pizzaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee7513/32.png) [@pizzaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzaman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/1 "2012-10-12T19:42:28Z")
We’ve been hearing this in our basement for weeks. Finally trapped it. Any idea what it is? We are in the Denver CO area. [http://s36.beta.photobucket.com/user/303me/media/whatisit\_zps6eec4741.mp4.html](http://s36.beta.photobucket.com/user/303me/media/whatisit_zps6eec4741.mp4.html) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/2 "2012-10-12T19:47:01Z")
Wood rat? Pack rat? Some kinda rat. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/3 "2012-10-12T19:47:15Z")
_El chupacabra del diablo._ Get out while you can. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/4 "2012-10-12T19:50:33Z")
Hoop snake ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/5 "2012-10-12T19:54:22Z")
Looks like a woodrat to me. They can make nice pets. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/6 "2012-10-12T19:59:19Z")
Mkae sure you check out his stash, they are the original pack rats! You might find somethings you have been missing. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/7 "2012-10-12T20:02:31Z")
It’s Ben! His friends will come looking for you tonight if you don’t release him real soon. ---
**Author:** ![Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/das_glasperlenspiel/32/2944_2.png) [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Das_Glasperlenspiel)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/8 "2012-10-12T20:22:44Z")
Anybody lose a chinchilla? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/9 "2012-10-12T20:35:55Z")
[Woodrat](http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/ndwild/woodrat.html) as was suggested above. Probably not a good idea to keep it around between fleas, lice and other insect it could be vectoring rabies or other nasties. I do sort of like the furry tail. I have never liked naked rat/opossum tails:( ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/10 "2012-10-12T23:27:15Z")
Woodrat or Cotton Rat. Get a Merlin Falcon to make short work of it (I’ve seen them do this.) After that you can train the Merlin to hunt sparrows and you can spend the rest of your life feasting on sparrow pie. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/11 "2012-10-12T23:33:21Z")
Made the topic title just a little bit more specific. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/12 "2012-10-12T23:37:49Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > sparrow pie Wut! Isn’t it supposed to be blackbirds? ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/13 "2012-10-12T23:41:00Z")
Don’t get it wet or feed it after midnight! ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/14 "2012-10-12T23:45:20Z")
But the most important rule, the rule you can never forget, no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never feed him after midnight. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/15 "2012-10-12T23:51:00Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Wood rat? Pack rat? Some kinda rat. It looks bigger than a pack rat, (except, of course, for my husband) and the link says they only live in North Dakota. [Pack rat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pack_rat) > [@](#): > > Size > Adult bushy-tailed woodrat males usually weigh 300-600grams with an average of 405grams, and adult females usually weigh 250-350grams with an average of 270grams. These ranges are relatively large because this species occupies a large geographic range, and its body size is closely correlated with climate.[5] Average males range in size from 310-470 millimeters with the average being 379 millimeters and average females range from 272 millimeters to 410 millimeters with the average being 356 millimeters. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/16 "2012-10-13T00:02:47Z")
Looks a bit like a marmot to me (they live in alpine-ish country) ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/17 "2012-10-13T00:44:54Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > It looks bigger than a pack rat, (except, of course, for my husband) and the link says they only live in North Dakota. That link is from a site devoted to North Dakota wildlife, so it says they live only in western ND. Later it describes the full range, which includes all of the Rocky Mountain area. ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/18 "2012-10-13T05:18:21Z")
I’m pretty sure you have a [bushy tailed woodrat](http://mereshadow.org/julia/2006-08/tn/bushy-tailed_woodrat.jpg.html). Though at first glance, I wondered if it might be a rogue chinchilla. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/19 "2012-10-13T10:15:59Z")
Seeing how the OP cited Denver as home, I’ll say it’s a [pika](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-it-animal-caught-in-house/637552/20 "2012-10-13T10:18:18Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > Seeing how the OP cited Denver as home, I’ll say it’s a [pika](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika). Sure looks like it has an external tail to me.