Jaci Dawn

It was a lovely weekend. I had things I should have done, but I will get myself busy this week and do those things (call friends and call on friends. The weekend was a quiet, introspective, restful weekend. I needed it.

The yard needs attention. I am rather disappointed in the blooms this year, partly because we never got to any of the local nurseries during the Spring and partly because I lost a number of bushes and plants to the winter. My yard seems dull without those plants, and the lack of new additions is a tad depressing. I am ahead of the weeds in the important places, but behind in too many other places.

Last winter brought an uninvited guest to our home. We suspected we had a visitor when we discovered the birdseed bag had been ripped open in the garage. The bag was moved into the house and one bird feeder (close to the ground) was left empty through the winter. My husband told me that feeding the squirrels was probably encouraging the unwanted house guest, but I persisted – until sometime last week when I looked out the front window and saw our house guest. The gall! Broad daylight, in our front yard, where anyone driving by could see it! AUGH!

The squirrel feeder has been put up and when the hanging bird feeder is empty, it will not be refilled.

We talked about poison and traps, but… we live in town now and the dogs are far too curious. Our fear is that a poisoned rat would wander out into the back yard to die and the dogs would find it. Traps don’t really work very well (trust me, this is not the first rat I’ve had to deal with in the metro area). Eliminating the food source, however – that is a huge step. We will probably end up trapping the buggers, but first the food source is going to dry up in hopes that they move out on their own.

They won’t. Rats are tenacious. I hate rats.

My husband worked in the veggie garden area today – it has long been neglected and overgrown. I think it has been three years since he has had the time to really work on it, and the grass is thick and deep. We won’t have a garden there this year, but if he can get ahead of the neglect, we will have a garden there next year. I mention this only because of the drama that unfolded later.

I was relaxing with a good book (And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, one of my favorite authors). Harvey was at my feet. Suddenly, he jumped up and trotted over to his outdoor kennel, and whined to get in. What the heck?? Why would he want in?

I walked over and peered into his doghouse. Nothing. Peered at the spaces around the dog house. Nothing. Harvey went into a frenzy of barking which brought Murphy out. Now Murphy wanted in to the kennel. I only wanted to know what was in the kennel that was feeding the frenzy – and I couldn’t find anything.

I opened the kennel door. Harvey had given up on me by this point and was back by the chair, sulking. Murphy, however, was intrigued. He began to pull out the bedding (gingerly).

A flash of grey by the handicap ramp and Harvey was on it. Murphy was still pulling bedding out, unaware that he had shaken a frightened field mouse out. The mouse was safe (Harvey was too slow).

But – really? Rats and mice? I console myself with this: it was a field mouse, not a house mouse. It can’t get into the house. It probably carries hanta virus. Okay, that last thought isn’t very comforting.

The rats are not inside the house, either. They seem to live under the house. That isn’t fine, but it is better than having them in the house, because I have had rats in the house. Don’t ask. I hate rats.

I do like dragonflies. I really like dragonflies.

This is what I did when I wasn’t worrying about mice and rats:

I recreated an entire rhododendron out of the limbs I cut down from the living rhododendrons in front of my house.

It may take weeks to get rid of the brush pile.

I hope we can be rid of the rats before we are rid of the brush.

And the mice.

The End.