Sunday, October 30, 2005

The critters in and around my house

I can tell that it’s getting cold outside because there are creatures in my house. And I don’t mean my pets! Friday on my day off I was rinsing out the coffeepot in the sink before making new coffee. And there in a brown paper bag with cereal boxes in it was a little brown mouse staring back at me! I grabbed the bag and took it outside, tipped it on its side and let the mouse out onto the frozen grass. It probably came back in the house before dark. Our house is very crowded and I don’t have much cupboard space so I have a large plastic storage container with groceries in it with a tight lid near the sink. On top of this storage container was the paper bag with the cereal boxes that didn’t fit into the container! I don’t know how the mouse ever got into the bag when it was up so high. I think it’s time for another food storage container.

Spotting critters number #2 and #3 happened when I was reading and commenting on blogs on Friday. I have window blinds which normally are open but the sun was shining directly on my computer screen so I had shut the blinds. Something caught my eye and there on the blinds was this huge shadow of a spider creeping up on a buzzing fly caught in his web! Wish I could have taken a photo of it. It would have made a great Halloween picture! The fly got away the first time, but then the spider was creeping up on it again but I got preoccupied with reading blogs and I don’t know how it all turned out. Don’t you wish you lived in my house with this much available (free) spooky entertainment? Later when the sun had moved, I put up the blinds and there was no sign of the spider or any flies in the window.

And outside the house on Friday, while I had the ferrets outside, was raking leaves, burying compost and doing outside chores I saw critters #4 and #5. First, up on the huge mound of black dirt that I use for the gardens was a dead hawk! I don’t know why it had died but felt instantly guilty from my childhood training that if something bad happened, somehow it’s my fault. The death actually may BE my fault because of the squirrels in the not quite-a-crawl-space above the ceiling in the house. I could hear them running around and CHEWING on things! Which was scary because there are electrical wires up there. First I tried to live-trap them, then regular trap them and finally as a last resort used poisoned peanut butter. I think the last method worked but now I wonder if the poor hawk ate one of the poisoned squirrels and died? I really am against the use of poison for just that reason and use it as the last resort. Or maybe the hawk had just flown into a window or gotten hit by a car and flew into my dirt pile. It looked like it might have been shot, as it had a wound in the shoulder and neck. Poor thing. They are a beautiful bird.

Creature number #5 was the curious little chipmunk that watched me rake leaves, inspected the ferrets and observed me looking at the poor dead hawk. It came very close and even chattered at me! When I walked towards it, it ran and dived into a hole in the ground. The ferrets were in their cage nearby playing with the pile of leaves I had put in the cage. I had dragged the heavy cage out into the sun as it was barely warm enough for the ferrets to be outside on Friday.

Well that was “creature Friday” but yesterday I went to the Vegetable Man’s house. He was busy as always, painting fence portions and digging large holes for various things. He changed clothes and took me into the larger nearby town (not the little one where the rummage was held) to rent a movie. We stopped at the Super Store and bought some oranges and pears, too. While in the checkout I realized I was behind a familiar person, Kate with several of the foster girls she cares for. Kate and I used to work together when I was working nights (and also working days, had two jobs) and we had not lost touch since then. She had wanted to call me on Friday because she had to go into the city for something with the girls. I had thought of calling her on Friday, too, but hadn’t because it’s hard for her to get away and find a sitter. I never call Kate for last minute things but give her time to make plans. So the moral of the story is, I should have called her anyway, I guess!

Vegetable Man and I never got around to watching the movie, but afterwards we had cold grilled porkchops, oranges and pears for a late-night dinner. Not a vegetable in sight! The porkchops were awesome cold, or maybe I was just really really hungry after all the exercise. I will say it, I’ll admit that “friends plus” definitely has advantages! But we had another talk about love and relationships and I have the feeling that all of this may not end well. I’m OK with the concept as long as nobody else is involved, but if he actually DID start dating someone else? That’s a horrible, icky thing to think about for sure. Hopefully we could go back to “friends, period” with no plus on it, but my heart isn’t so obedient about stuff like that! It would be a shame to ruin such a long-term friendship…but then there are those benefits...and it's really kind of late to go back now.

Have a wonderful Sunday! Hope you have better weather than here, we have overcast, cold and rain.

10 Comments:

Blogger Fizzy said...

Hello, all those critters (we don't use that word here hehehe, I don't think I would have been that calm about putting the mouse outside.I would probably dropped the bag and it would have run.


We put our clocks back last night so we now get more daylight AND more rain.... rain Bah Humbug.

Have a good Sunday

9:38 AM  
Blogger Lorna said...

Lots of things to read between the lines here---my favourite subtopic of reading...I wouldn't have been happy about the dead hawk, but I have a feeling you and I have different perspectives about the natural world---ferrets as pets, is a good clue. Have a happy Sunday

11:20 AM  
Blogger Happy and Blue 2 said...

I just love having birds and squirrels around in the yard. But not in my house.
I trapped my mouse and felt bad for it afterwards..

1:22 PM  
Blogger Michelle said...

Good to see my house is not the only one full of critters! How fun ehhh :)
If veggie man started dating someone else whilst wanting to be with you, i'd smack him LOL

1:46 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

That is quite a lot. But I still chalk it up to Halloween!

2:51 PM  
Blogger Anvilcloud said...

Well, you've got a lot to keep your mind occupied. We saw a deer the other day and got a picture. Check Cuppa's blog for it. She finally posted something.

3:50 PM  
Blogger Phil said...

That's a lot of critters! We get deer and other furry things, but not in the house. I saw part of Arachnaphobia today, yuck, spiders.
Too bad about the hawk, they are great birds. We have so many Turkey Vultures by us, you can often see a dozen of them circling overhead. I love birds....

8:13 PM  
Blogger Darlene said...

Hah, you're the same way with mice in the house as I am. My cat likes to sit outside on our porch, but sometimes he wanders into the yard, and sometimes he catches a mouse and brings it in the house. He's got a soft mouth, so whenever that happens I wait until he drops the mouse. Then put a small box over over it, slip a thin piece of cardboard underneath, and carry it outside to let the critter go. Works great! For big spiders and moths, I do the same but with a glass jar.

10:55 PM  
Blogger sumo said...

I'd have done the same for the mouse...I really like them. I couldn't imagine hurting anything. Too bad about the hawk though.

2:00 AM  
Blogger glomgold said...

That would be a seriously loud thud if a hawk flew into your window right?

1:50 PM  

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