Thought I'd show a little ground squirrel mush. Don't know how the one pic got posted twice. These are Piute Ground Squirrels, known in So. West Idaho as "whistle pigs". They are about half the size of your sage rats.
It's a .218 Bee, 6x Leupold. I've had it at least 20 years. It's completely factory original, hasn't had one thing done to it and it's one of my most accurate guns. The more I shoot it the more I like it. My favorite load is 40 gr. V-Max with 14 gr. Lil' gun With it I have killed thousands of squirrels, prarie dogs, jack rabbits, rock chucks, lot's of badgers, and a couple coyotes. I've nicknamed it "Deadly Do Right". I wouldn't trade or sell that gun for all the money in the world. The only thing I might change on it is the trigger pull. It's got about an 8 lb. pull but it's so accurate I hate to mess with it.
The strung out rat, my buddy was holding it with his Leatherman pliers. The little buggers are prone to the plague in this area and we don't handle them with bare hands.