Rat in my Kitchen

[Pawbah]

I don't post too many new topics, but I wanted to talk about this.
OK, for the past few weeks my family has thought that we had a little mouse living in the kitchen. It has happened before so we weren't surprised. We set out little mouse traps but they weren't working. The bait would be gone but there would be no mouse. Now I like Mice so I don't mind sharing the same living area that much. I know it's not good, because who knows what it could be carrying, but mice are cute, so I wasn't in a hurry to kill it.

Well, today I heard a noise and I looked into the Kitchen and I saw something moving and I was like, "oh, the mouse!" Then the "mouse" stood up on it's little back legs and stuck it's sniffy noise in the air. I then realized that this is not a mouse. This is a freaking huge rat. I freaked out and called my dogs, I don't know why, I don't want my dogs near the rat. Then I called my mom and now I'm too freaked out to go into the kitchen.

So I'm posting here to ask if anyone has any tips on how to get rid of a rat. Because I only have little mouse traps and I don't think they would work too well.