Monday, March 16, 2009

Dead Mice and Cat Poo

OK, so what is it about early spring that brings out the gross factor? Not to mention the false hope one gets as the sun starts coming up earlier and earlier, until it's already getting light as we start our run at 5:50 a.m., only to be slammed back into pitch darkness from beginning to end when we had to turn the clocks back two weeks ago. After so many cold dark days all winter long, it's a little demoralizing.

Even the cats still don't want to go outside. This weekend I discovered our black cat Fanny (Miss Kitty Fantastico, named by Cassie after the Buffy the Vampire Slayer character she resembles) has been using one of the planters in our family room as a litter box. Mystery solved: I'd been finding random pieces of cat poo on the rug, and then on Saturday saw it scattered around the base of the peace lily. On closer inspection, I realized the pot was full of poo -- yuck!

Then yesterday I found a dead mouse on my dining room rug. Lucky for me I was with a friend, who very kindly and helpfully threw it in the outside trash. Unluckily however, Maddie discovered another one in the family room later, with no friends around to save us. I told her to cover it with a paper towel and I would get it soon. The two cats had other ideas -- they thought a rodent under cover was another super fun game, and playfully tossed it around the house some more as Maddie watched, aghast. After searching every room, I found it curled up on the basement stairs.

Picking up a soft dead mouse, even in a paper towel, is a horrible, cringe inducing act. I shuddered and literally almost got sick as I wrapped my fingers around it, cupped it in my palm and ran outside. I imagined it was still alive and moved slightly as I held it, which was like those moments in a horror movie when the bad guy you think is dead suddenly opens his eyes and lunges. Or Glenn Close in the bathtub. I shrieked and jumped like a cartoon of a woman with a dead mouse -- cliches become so for a reason, right?

Now this morning, another dark run from beginning to end, in the damp, foggy gloom. Fanny has probably pooped in the planter again, and no doubt mice are trying to sneak in as I type. Enough already. I want sunrise at 6:00 a.m. I want my cats to go outside and keep the mice out as well. I am so totally over winter and cold and poo and dead animals in the house. Call me crazy.

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