The Rat
October 4th, 2005
This toy rat is the one that Heather has tried countless times to scare me with post-tarantula. I’ve never screamed loud enough or stuck my chin out far enough to warrant a genuine scare.
Leta, on the other hand, after an initially rocky start, pulling one of the cutest ewwww! faces, now takes this by the tail and shakes it up and down, yo-yo like.
I’m convinced that in three days, I could hide this in a drawer or under a pillow and Heather would still shriek loud enough to crack the plaster walls.
I don’t think this would be a photo that I would sell, for the record. MP3s of the shrieking, maybe a whole CD worth? That would be pure gold. o

October 4th, 2005 at 3:55 pm
Ah, marriage…
October 4th, 2005 at 4:06 pm
nice!
October 4th, 2005 at 4:14 pm
My mom bought my 4 year old daughter, Claire, a couple of very real looking rubber ladybugs. Somehow, they always end up upside down on the floor, usually in my bathroom or kitchen. When they are upside down, they just look like dead roaches with their little legs sticking straight up in the air. I still shriek, yell, scream and jump around every single time I walk in and see one of those things,and I run across them several times a day! lol! I’ll never learn, and I doubt Heather will, either! lol!
October 4th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
That’s OK, Jon, there are men like me who shriek like LITTLE girls when presented with the unexpected. My kids forever delight in making me jump a foot or two in the air. Apparently, that kind of thing never goes out of style with the under 10 set.
October 4th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
hehehehehehehe….
God I love practical jokes.
At least Leta is not chewing on the rat…. yet…
October 4th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
I remember when I was newly-married and living in a apartmnet that was populated with non-rubber, live rats…ahh, those were the days!
October 4th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Dude, hide a George W. Bush doll in her drawer. That should scare the living daylights out of her, and make for some nice shrieking.
October 4th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
I just scared a 6 ft 2 Marine nearly to death by sticking a plastic spider inside his box of Raisin Bran, so when he poured his morning dose of fiber it fell right into the bowl.
Keep up the good work,
A fan of spousal abuse in the form of practical jokes
October 4th, 2005 at 7:24 pm
My old boss was afraid of insects so one day I wrapped up a live cricket in a little box and set it on her desk. She thought it was a present someone had left her. When she opened it the cricket jumped at her lol. I’ve never heard someone scream so loud in my life.
October 4th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
Husbands. *sigh* You gotta ask yourself, Jon, will it be worth it…the retribution, I would imagine, would be phenomenal. “Consequences and repurcussions”. Consider your options well.
October 4th, 2005 at 8:08 pm
Who says no one would buy this? I’m imagining it 18×24 on my living room wall, black and white, with a silver plate underneath that reads, “FINK.”
October 4th, 2005 at 8:09 pm
I once ate a whole gummy rat. Not sure how that’s at all relevant…just thought I’d share.
October 4th, 2005 at 8:30 pm
I have an incredibly life-like looking rubber snake. And a spouse who is terrified of snakes…let the torture begin!
October 4th, 2005 at 10:19 pm
you people have way too much fun
October 4th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
Jon, I’ve decided what you need to do for a living: teach barely computer literate folks like me how to do cool shit with their Macs. I paid $1,200 for an iBook and I can use about 20% of itís functionality. Iíd gladly shell out $200 to sit in your basement for a weekend and have you and Heather teach me how to use the other 80%. Hell, Iíd even let Chuck and Leta chew on my shoes.
October 5th, 2005 at 6:11 am
Oh come on, selling a photo of Heather shrieking at the sight of a rubber rat would be a pre-requisite to this whole photo sales idea - we’d all pay to see that
Only because it means Heather then tries to get you back in very funny ways, which usually don’t work but they’re damn funny to read about!!
October 5th, 2005 at 7:00 am
I’d buy that CD. FOR SURE!
As for “trying to scare the shit out of people”, I’d never get away with it. I’d be giggling too much that they’d catch on and say “OK, what are you up to”.
I wish I could though.
October 5th, 2005 at 9:44 am
In an IT job that I used to work, we had a small mouse problem–and a rubber rat. There was one particularly high-strung person on our team in whose desk we stashed said rat. It scared the bejeezus out of her. She screamed loud enough that everyone on our floor heard it and came to see what happened. Then my parents guilt programming kicked in. I felt terrible. Only for about a week though, when I did it again. >:*)
October 5th, 2005 at 10:27 am
Jason got me with our “rubber roach of doom” this morning. It had been lost for a while, but he found it in his pants pocket last night. As I was getting into the shower I looked down and saw this evil bug starring at me. I screamed like a big ass pansy. Jason’s on the bed rolling because he loves to see me in freak out mode.
October 5th, 2005 at 10:38 am
Does you rat squeak? We have one that does, it terrifies my cat. He would walk in extreme slow motion through a room to get around where the rat was. For some reason he is afraid of dark colored things on the floor… socks, belts etc. SHHHH, don’t tell him he’s a black cat too!
October 5th, 2005 at 11:22 am
My hubby and I play those terrible practical jokes on each other too…..my favorite is putting on a scary mask, or a pantload of makeup like a clown and scaring the crap outta him when he is in the shower…..think Stefani Harajuku Girls….. :p
Or better yet, pouring ice cold water on him while he is in the shower - maybe one day he will start locking the bathroom doors….
October 5th, 2005 at 11:43 am
We used to have a rubber snake we’d scare the dog with… one day I thought hubby was trying to scare ME with the rubber snake, when I went to pick it up…it wasn’t rubber. Yes, I screamed like hell was chasing me. NOT funny.
October 5th, 2005 at 12:52 pm
I use the hide and jump out technique to scare Mr.Strizz. I find it to be the most effective. Especially when the kids are asleep and the house is quiet. Moohahaha
October 5th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
do you really talk that much?
October 5th, 2005 at 3:18 pm
Spiders never used to scare me. I then got a girlfriend who squealed every time she saw a spider, and now, just like Pavlovís dog, I squeal any time that I see one. It’s so stupid - I’m from Australia, now living in London (there’s nothing to be scared of) - but good god I squeal. I’m now thinking that if I could apply the same training principles to a pint of beer with her, it might be entertaining…