Voles, Cats and an 11 Year Old Girl:
Pre-adolescent girl asks, "Mom, what are rabies?"
Mom, cooking, answers factually....
Girl whispers "can a cat die from rabies"
Mom, still distracted at stove, "sure"
Silent, crocodile tears begin splashing on the table
Mom, finally beginning to catch on....”did something bite Kitty?"
Girl “maybe”
Mom, "where?"
Girl "in my room" "I rescued 'it' but 'it' escaped"
Turns out my daughter had snatched a vole or some such jumping rodent from the jaws of neighborhood cat, secreted said rodent away in her room where he promptly escaped to “threaten” our house cat. After spending way too many dollars on Have-a-Heart traps we captured the critter and released him to the wild only to have him run leaping straight into a stream.
noded 2 years late, but it did happen in Spring. The house cat and the girl both survived the incident, we aren't sure about the vole.