Mountain beaver??..

Spring is upon us again which means I have spent a lot of time in the garden rather than in the kitchen this month of April.
If you remember, last year a mountain beaver chopped my newly planted leeks. So this year I completely surrounded my vegetable garden beds with fencing hoping this would detter the little creature.
So what a surprise when one morning I looked over and saw this little guy hopping into my garden beds and then running for dear life upon seeing me! At first I thought, here is my mountain beaver, these little rodents are very specific to this area of the US, and can make a lot of damage, you can find more info here.

But after investigation it turned out my visitor was a Norway rat, I say was as my faithfull knight (aka Jewel the dog) rid me of this pest in one bite of her powerful jaw.

So long little rat, RIP.