Mouse or rat? Pic included

[mouseorrat]

Mouse or rat? Found it in the garden, about the size of a hamster

@Pestypete thankyou! That's good news for me then, we do have large fields around my house

@KitschBitch I shall look for the hat now 😂

I haven't changed my mind and have had 30+ years to cement my vehement dislike!!!

It was NOT that long ago. It just wasn't. Kay?!

@ThatssomebadhatHarry hahaha, it's a vombler Mat

I'm laughing so much at some of your comments 😂 the gender fluid mouse/rat thing

It’s a juvenile rat. As a pest controller I’m pretty certain it’s a rat. Get a local pest control company to come and assess the situation. Rats and children are not a good combination.

@Mooey89 I'm pretty confident now that's it's a rare fish

Fairly certain it's not a shrew. We had a cat who was always bringing them in. Their faces are a completely different shape.

@Jfd73 I don't have children, I do have children visitors in the family though

As you can see, shrews are also like tiny wombles.

Oh my god! Are Wombles descended from shrews? Mutant shrews... 🤯

I for one welcome our giant shrew overlords.

For the pest controller at the back. That is not a rat

Thank you, @JamieVardysHavingAParty. You may kiss my paw

It's a white elephant.

Look out for mini pair of specs too - just in case Great Uncle Bulgaria has just bit the dust

IT’S A MOUSE!!! I have waded through 10 pages of people talking absolute and complete bollocks.

What is most likely to be in a mouse trap? A fucking squirrel? I lived in the most mouse-infested house in the Western Hemisphere and on one memorable occasion caught 13 mice in one evening. Believe me. It is a mouse.

@TooExtraImmatureCheddar good point

Some of it is ironic bollocks, thank you very much!

Although the rest is just people wanting to freak the OP out

Having kept pet rats all my life I can categorically tell you that is NOT a rat. That be a mouse.

The ironic bollocks has been the only saving grace!

I was once on a thread where some people agreed with the OP that her picture of a cabbage white caterpillar was a maggot. The OP had reason to worry that it was a maggot. I had sympathy for her. The other MNers? Not so much.

That is a mouse. I often find dead ones in the winter.

A rat? Nope!
Degu? No way!
Squirrel? Never in a month of Sundays!
Nor yet a harvest mouse ( much too big for that), glis glis ( they are grey with bushy tails), dormouse ( all in hibernation in Mad Hatters' teapots at the moment), nor a vole or shrew - again too large to be either of those.
Not a hippopotamus, elephant or blue whale.
It is, in fact...
a variety of wild mouse ( not a house mouse), almost certainly a long tailed field mouse. I have two which live in my greenhouse and have been watching them this evening, whilst sitting in there, with a cup of tea, listening to bell ringing practice from the village church across the fields. Absolute bliss after a somewhat crappy day at work!
There is also a shrew which lives in my kitchen and makes an appearance now and again, much to my delight, very entertaining and, being insectivorous, keeps the woodlice and silverfish under control - everything has its place! A good read, which I would recommend is: 'The Garden Jungle Or Gardening To Save The Planet' by Dave Goulson, founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

I have banged my drum enough now, in respect of appreciating what others may consider pests or undesireable, over to others....