Rat?

I got my first little hamster yesterday! Anyway, more on that later :)

As Taylor and her mom were driving me to the pet store, Taylor's mom was telling us why she was fond of hamsters but terribly disgusted with rats.

"There's something about their tail that I don't like," she said.

"My mom hates rats too," I chimed in. "She has a serious rat phobia. She won't even approve of hamsters because she thinks they look like rats."

We had stopped at the traffic light.

"RAT!" Taylor suddenly pointed out.

Both of them turned to left and Taylor's mom shook her head, muttering, "Oh... that's not pretty."

I tried to spot the rat they were talking about, but all I saw was an accident involving two cars across the road.

No rat. Where was it?

"I don't see it," I said.

"You don't see it? It's right there!" Taylor's mom pointed at the two cars.

"No, I still don't see it." I said.

The light turned green and we inched forward, passing by the two cars. The front of the red car was totaled and the back of the other car was badly dented.

But no rat. Maybe it'd left the scene.

"Oh no, looks like it slammed into the back of that car..." Taylor sighed.

I stared at the back of that car, and suddenly, clarity dawned on me and I felt a hundred times smarter.

"Oh, you meant wreck. I thought you said rat." I told Taylor.

They burst out laughing.

"Oh that's a good one!" Taylor's mom chuckled.

Silly me! Sadly, this wasn't the first time my ears tricked me into believing something totally different.