Tuesday, November 15, 2011

skeleton in the closet

A disconcerting surprise.
Our helper, Bebing, was cleaning the top kitchen cupboard last week
when she found this:


"Lizard," she said confidently.

It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a lizard skeleton;
its carcass stripped overnight by voracious ants.

But this was no lizard.
"Lizards don't have teeth like this, Bebing.  
Nor tails like this, either."
No, this skeleton was the skeleton of a mouse.
And then she found the tufts of fur to prove it.
*shudder*

That skeleton wasn't there when she cleaned this same cupboard
about 6 months ago.
I'm not sure that I want to think too hard about what that means.

Mark did see a mouse in the house in late September,
when he was up doing some late-night reading in our school room.
That mouse was trapped within 24 hours, before he'd done much damage,
only sampling a bag of macaroni.

 But this open cupboard door up there in the photo is where these mouse remains were found.
That means that more than one rodent has penetrated the sanctity of our home.

That cupboard is just an empty cupboard, like all the rest of those top cupboards that are impossibly high to reach.  But for some reason he found a way in, and no way out.

At least he didn't drown in the pudding, like Anne's in Marilla's pantry at Green Gables...


“I suppose it was a romantic way to perish... for a mouse”
 - L.M. Montgomery



Have you had any disconcerting surprises this week?


3 comments:

The Church Cook said...

Eeek! *FAINT*
Recently I monitored a group of kids taking apart owl pellets of a rodent. You know about my mouse phobia.....

Betsy de Cruz said...

My disconcerting surprise was Sunday night when my car broke down for the third time after we'd already had the same problem fixed twice. Not as icky as a mouse skeleton...

us5 said...

@ Kay...i thought of you when we found this skeleton! better me than you, friend!

@ OliveTree...i'm so sorry about your car! not as icky as a mouse, no, but lots more expensive and interruptive!!