Another Rat's Tale

Seriously.

So, the Bird Lady moved in next door, and she benevolently took it upon herself to feed all the critters from the greater Bel Air mountain range area with her gratuitous bird seed. I didn't see much of a problem with it until, I noticed that these critters had bushy tails. Squirrels. Ugh.

Squirrels in Westwood are certifiable.... literally nuts.

Wonderful.

I started to notice little pieces of boxes, our camping chairs, plastic, and paper ripped up in piles around our shed in the back. Then I noticed leaves. LOTS and LOTS of leaves in our shed..... and Bird Seed. LOTS and LOTS of birdseed in our shed. I began to suspect that the squirrels were hunting for a residence closer to the food source.

Tim evicted them from their living spaces. I cleaned out the shed and sealed the doors at tightly as I could, but one day, after all is said and done, I was out back filing some papers in the file cabinet when out leaps (what I think is) a squirrel from the shed.

AAAAAA!

I run full speed into our back door. Bang! Still screaming, I struggle with the handle. Once inside I am dancing around like an monkey on hot coals scared half out of my mind. I don't like critters to surprise me.

After a while, I peek out back to see if the coast is clear.

I close up the shed and seal it with duck tape.

There. Problem solved.

Fast forward one week. I am headed to the beach, and I go out back to get my beach chair and beach bag. As I unseal the shed, the most god-awful smell causes my nose to wrinkle in disgust.

Yuck. What is that? It smells like something died.

I pull out my bag and chair. As I head inside, I glance down and notice a LONG tail hanging out of the bag.

Aliens in space could hear the scream. I threw the bag across the patio so freaked out that I was frozen in place.

A RAT.

DIED.

IN.

MY.

BEACH.

BAG.

We have now expedited our search for a new home.


For Home Hunting stories:
http://raephrasing.blogspot.com/2009/08/place-to-call-home-false-advertising.html


For more Rat Tales check out:
http://raephrasing.blogspot.com/2008/09/like-cyclone.html