The Rat

I heard a movement in my bedroom. I roused myself from sleep and heard it again. Sort of a scuffling noise. I sat up and put the light on. A movement behind a chest of drawers.
I got up and saw a huge black rat run across the floor and out of the open door into the hallway.
I chased it, together with Max the ancient dog, although I think he was uncertain what the commotion was about.
The rat (genus rattus rattus) darted from cover to cover like some sort of guerilla fighter.
Eventually I cornered it behind the TV set and was set to dispatch it with a poker. Then it disappeared, completely, flicked out of existence.
Then I woke up for the second time, no scufflings, just darkness.