On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 15:23:29 -0500, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 11/24/15 3:16 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 13:41:29 -0500, Keyser Söze
wrote:

We put out grain blocks, corn and sunflower seeds at the edge of the woods

Yup, if you had a pet rat, that is what you feed them.
We had a bird feeder for a long time and never saw a rat, until the
night I took a 2 pound Norway off the feeder with my .22
Then we started watching and there were lots of them coming around
late at night.


In all the years we've lived here, I've seen a couple of mice outside,
but never a rat, and I spend a lot of time outdoors working in the yard.
I'm not saying there aren't any out there. When the floods pop on
because of critter movement and I look outside, the critter(s) typically
are foxes, raccoons, possums, and, in daylight, groundhogs, rabbits,
squirrels, and at dusk, deer. Twice in all these years, a mouse made the
mistake of getting into the house somehow, and in both instances, they
were caught and dispatched by our cats.

In Maryland., I will bet the farm that you have Norway rats (the
black/roof/tree/fruit rat is more prevalent here).

In reality they are going to be about like the squirrels and rabbits
in the chances to spread disease in that environment but they are
going to be there.
Your cat is not going to mess with a full grown Norway. The babies
might take a beating but they make plenty more. Rats tend to expand
their population to fill the food supply and they are far better at
avoiding predators than most other rodents. That is why they such
effective "invasive exotics".