Murder at Midnight

I was sleeping soundly until a loud thump startled me awake. I sit up, looking for something I cannot see. I lay back and close my eyes as a wet, sloppy sound comes to my ears. I wonder if my son, who works at a restaurant, has given my dog a bone. I sit up and search for the dog through the filtered light. The dog is awake, but eating nothing. I close my eyes and lay back on my pillow.

As I start to relax, the sound, louder than the first time, comes to my ears. I sit up and throw my legs over the side of the bed. I stand and walk slowly toward the door; carefully feeling my way through the dark. A feline shadow leaps across my path and darts from the room. I now know what to expect when I turn on the light; the dead or dying feline midnight snack.

I see the shadow of a bunny near the bed; glad that I didn't step on it when I got up. I check to make sure it's not moving before I head to the garage for a dust pan. I shut the door behind me so the criminal cannot to return to the scene of the crime. I remove the carcass and ban the animals from the room for the night.

I have had enough cats over the years to not be surprised when I find something unpleasant in the house.

I remember specifically birds (I have come home to find them flying around the house),

frogs,

snakes, 

moles,

and chipmunks. 

One chipmunk in particular had quite a scary adventure in our home. One of the cats brought him in while we were at work. Somehow he managed to escape the jaws of death only to be found by Woodstock, our ferret later in the day. Actually, that's a good thing, because we were able to rescue him and send him on his merry way. Woodstock, given the opportunity probably would have killed him. He chased that littlechipmunk into and out of all the places that we couldn't reach. It was quite a chase for all involved. I finally managed to capture Woodstock so we could focus on the chipmunk. TOM and son managed to corner the chipmunk in the corner of a small room and throw a towel over him and carry him out. 

For another dead critter story, click here.   

I Hate Reptiles

I know it is not nice to hate God's creatures, but I really can't help it when it come to green slithery things. Reptiles have to be number one on the list of things I don't like.

It all started back when I was in the first grade (yes, I do remember back that far) and I was walking thru my front yard with bare feet. I don't know what made me look down, but there slithering under the arch of my left foot was a garden snake. I know, they are perfectly harmless (until they bite you). I don't think I even actually touched flesh to reptile skin, but it totally grossed me out. I don't like frogs or toads, lizards or salamanders. Geckos (like geico) are ok. Turtles are OK too. I have been known to move them out of the road to the safety of the shoulder.

But I digress, back to the note and the reason for it at the top of this post. Kitty brought a frog into the house. It wasn't quite dead, but was close. TOM was on the road for work so I didn't have anyone to get rid of the frog. (TOM recently instituted rule 37 which states 'the first one to see it has to get rid of it', but I don't follow that rule. The next best thing for frog disposal is my son, it is his cat after all. He works late so I left him a note. I put an ice cream bucket on the frog and a rock on top of the bucket. My son called me at 10:00 to tell me that the FROG WAS NOT UNDER THE BUCKET! I mean where the heck did it go? I thought is was too weak to move the bucket, now I'm worried there's a dead frog in the house. And to top it off, we have a ferret and instinctively he is not fond of reptiles either. I am afraid he will find it and drag it off somewhere. Think it's a toy or something. What a quandary. I'm surprised that I can sleep with all the slithering going on in this house. Maybe Kitty realized how upset I was and took it back outside. I will probably never know, but I watch my step pretty carefully.