I live in a rural area. Sometimes I see mice in my house, but I have three cats and they mostly seem to handle it. Occasionally I have to clear up one the cats addressed before my young kid sees it. No big deal - I knew what I was getting into when I moved here.
However, just now I saw a rodent I couldn’t identify. I’m home alone and therefore feel no need for restraint; I yelled “what the fuck are you?” at it. It rudely failed to identify itself, simply running away instead.
Maybe thirty seconds later it appeared at the opposite end of the room. I didn’t really know what to do about it so I yelled “hey!”
It ran away again and I haven’t seen it since then, but now I’m paranoid. It looked like a small ferret but I don’t have one of those anymore and I don’t think there are wild ones near here.
I don’t want to get rabies or even my toes bitten.
edit: Temporarily ignoring safety concerns, especially those regarding my kid … The rodent was pretty cute.
Yeah, a conflict with my cats is one of the reasons I was particularly concerned about its presence. I suspect at least one of my cats would win (the other two are pretty old and have never really been hunters, though one of them has always been fascinated by raccoons). However, as you said, likely none of them would come out unscathed.
The one that might win was sitting on the arm of the recliner I was using, so I’m glad the critter didn’t try to jump on me - likely none of the three of us would have had fun then.
That said, weasel or not, you’re right that it did not appear to be afraid of me, unlike the mice I’ve occasionally seen. It only ran away when I yelled.