"If you can't beat 'em...join 'em"......

Can't believe mom got up so early...an' in a fairly good mood.  We had her out on a hunt last nite about midnite (unplanned on her part).  It got rather involved w/her an' her big lite.  She was all ready for bed...I was, too...then we heard Lexie barkin' out back.  Mom went to the back door an' called her to come in...Lexie would get quiet (which is never a good sign as far as mom is concerned...she gets visions of all kinds of scenerios involvin' Lexie an' whatever she's caught goin' thru her head..an' all based on past events).  Then Lexie'd start up barkin', again.  Mom tried all the magic words..."come", "cookie", "come in the kitchen"..."get in this house..right now!"...none of 'em worked.  The whole time I was standin' at the backdoor w/mom watchin' an' listenin'.  I was ready to be sent in to retrieve Lexie or take care of whatever situation she had stirred up.....just needed mom's "ok".  Mom finally got exasperated enough to send me out there.  Off I went in a blurr......leavin' mom by the back door.  From mom's perspective....now, we were both out there...an' she could catch glimpses of tan every now an' again thru patches of lite...but it was, again, quiet.  She tried callin' us both...nada...now, we were both on the hunt.  Probably a lil' exasperated, mom grabs her big lite, an' comes out to see what was what an' get us inside. As soon as she got out there...Lexie an' I split up....we appreciated the lite, though.  We were after somethin' in that big garden between the mulberry tree an' the pond.  Like furry bolts of lightnin'..we were zig zaggin' in an' out of that garden after somethin'.  Mom kept tryin' to grab one of us, but she couldn't even keep track of us w/that lite..we were movin' so fast.  She finally gave up an' shined the lite over where we was searchin'....then...as she was movin' the lite...she looked up an' found herself face to face w/the reason for all the hoopla.....a furry beady eyed field rat about 8" from her nose an' hangin' on a lil' branch.  Of course, she did what anyone would probably do in that situation...she swatted at it w/her big lite an' yelled for me.  Lexie an' I came runnin'...she pointed off where that critter had landed an' said "look"....I gave her a quick once over..an' although she had sounded a lil' excited, she seemed ok..so, off we went towards where she pointed.  That rat had landed by the pond...so the hunt was on again.  Guess he was a lil' stunned, 'cause he had gone to ground again, an' we found his trail.  Mom was a lil' mad at that rat for scarin' her, so she was tryin' to help w/her lite.  (Actually, she says it was a case of knowin' we weren't givin' up at this point an' she might as well give in). At one point, we had him surrounded (Lexie an' I make a great team...we know how to go at things from both sides an' work together really well).  We woulda got him, too...but he ran up a tree an' escaped to the roof.   Then mom told us we had done a good job an' it was time to go inside.  We were satisfied an' beat her to the house.  Once inside, we were still "full of it" (mom's words) an' wanted to play zoomies in the house..but mom said we were on our own an' at that point, she turned off all the lites in the house an went to bed, not at all full of excitement.