Monday, August 31, 2009

dead things in the trash can this week: 3 (again)

we are so in iowa.

in new mexico, we had wildlife that stayed pleasantly out of and away from the house itself (with the exception of those extremely ill-mannered squirrels that moved into our attic) and just poked their heads out from time to time to let us oooh and aaah over their otherness. here, not so much. last week rich discovered three petrified field mice in the basement, which thoroughly freaked him out. he got out the shop vac, sucked them up, dumped them into the trash, washed out the shop vac, and vowed never to go to that part of the basement again. he doesn't do critters. he barely does people, so he definitely doesn't do critters.

imagine his surprise yesterday when he went to put his muck boots on, ones he had left on the front porch for about a week, and dumped out a very surprised field mouse, her nest, and her two newborn babies. she got away but the babies and their nest got tossed out (by me) with, not surprisingly, the muck boots. rich will probably never attempt going into the "yard" again. and paco has spent the last 24 hours trying to flush out the mama mouse from under the house.

thus, it wasn't terribly surprising this afternoon when i put paco on a leash to give him his afternoon walk that he bolted after something moving in the "yard." what was surprising was realizing rather forcibly that i hadn't connected the leash to his collar but rather just to his tags...which he broke with ease and was then gone. two, maybe three seconds later i had a bloody, twitching chipmunk at my feet and a wagging, smiling paco looking up at me. gus and his friend were in the front watching this whole thing unfold and learning a host of new curse words they never knew existed. i'm fairly certain gus' friend's mom will never let him visit again. anyway, i debated leaving the chipmunk on the driveway to discompose rich but decided his delicate nature would be too rattled by such a sight, thought better of it, and tossed it out as well. nature and rich don't get along.

mercifully, trash comes tomorrow. and no pictures today.

2 comments:

  1. i am having too many mouse in iowa flashbacks to even begin to recount...let's see the nancy graul one in the laundry...after the laundry had run, or our nest in the grill, unnoticed until lit (really gruesome, i'm positive that it cost me a life in some scheme of the universe) and so on....oh lord girl i so should not be laughing, but its a night for schadenfreude (i just finally got kean to watch monty python and the holy grail after 13 years of marriage.) love to you and rich and the kids. and that mom will get over it.

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  2. oh my god--no kidding! i remember nancy made tom fish it out with barbeque tongs, then threw away the tongs and i think all the clothes that were in there with it. yuck. i should check my dryer vents and make sure they are closed...

    i had forgotten about your grill until you mentioned it! that is gruesome. rich had an equally terrible experience with a lawnmower and a nest of rabbits (first mow of the summer). he never mowed again until we moved to albuquerque, and then he did the. same. exact. thing. again.

    nature is just cruel to little things. love to you all, too!

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