What a Cutie!

  Have you ever noticed how stores seem to prey on folks at any "gift-giving" time?  Most of us have those days when going somewhere empty handed is just not at all acceptable.  We were taught long ago that it is just proper to bring some small gift.  While it does not have to be expensive or large, it is highly important that it is a perfectly well-thought gift.  Department stores are no help.  They shove stuff at us in wild abandon in hopes that, in desperation, we will grab whatever is glitzy and shiny and pass it off as a personally selected gift.  Those boxed gift sets are horrible!  They are useless!  I hope to never see one darken my doorway again!  Who needs another coffee mug with a single serving of instant fruit flavored coffee or a plastic "loofah" and cucumber scented body wash that causes a major rash with the first use or even a tiny photo album that holds six pictures and comes complete with a non-working pen?  Not me...and probably not you but the stores still have all of these displayed in prominent places and they will sell thousands to folks who need that last minute present.  

  I have this sweetheart of a cousin who always finds the most unique gifts.  Not that they are necessarily expensive or flashy, but the gifts are just perfect because she really "thinks" about the recipient. She thinks about what they like, what they do and what makes them smile.  With that it mind, she finds things that she knows that person will appreciate.  I admit that it is probably hard to find a gift for me.  While I appreciate all gifts, I would rather have something that I can use.  So....that said....Helen bought me a rat!  Yep,  A rat!  I love it!  The rat was one of several Halloween things that she came across while shopping and she just knew that I would appreciate it (and each of the other items!)  That says a lot about me, doesn't it!  I get thrilled over a rat!

  The thing that stands out about this rat is that it shows that Helen really knows me.  While she may not understand me (who does?), she knows that the little rat with beady eyes will come in handy.  She knows that I will pull the little critter out of the closet each year and smile.  The rat will be put out in a special place or may be moved here or there as an unexpected "surprise" for visitors to the Little Bayou House during the month of October...and may not be stowed away at all for the rest of the months.  Helen knows that I love quirky little things and always manages to come up with the most perfect of gifts.  I love this lady!  What a special part of my life she is!  Thank you, Helen! The bag of goodies is perfectly glorious and I really do adore this little critter!

The Better Mousetrap!

For the past year, there have been mice...no rats..no voles...(something!) digging tunnels in the gardens and lawn. This all started with one small tunnel leading from the canebrake to the compost pile. This was not so bad, I could deal with some critter going to the compost to get a free meal now and again. Then those tunnels spread into a huge network under the entire yard. The critters were wreaking havoc on the gardens since as they tunneled, they would gnaw through the roots of plants or eat the tender shoots and bulbs. I lost many of the blueberry bushes and rose bushes this way. When the plants were pulled from the ground, there were no roots! They had be chewed clean away leaving just a bare stalk. I pondered and pondered of just how to get rid of these varmints! I would have thought that the owls, ospreys and hawks would be enough to minimize the mice! Or perhaps the fox, coyotes and bobcats might reduce the rats! Or maybe at least the cat and dog would vanquish the voles! No such luck. These critters (whatever they may be) were taking over the place and were pillaging the property! Ok, ok..so they were making a mess of my gardens and no natural method was solving the problem. What was I to do? With their runs being underground, it seemed nigh on impossible to set traps for the little fellows. Not to mention that other hapless creatures might become ensnared in the traps. I was not out to kill everything that ran through the yard!

Last night, however, one rat decided to take the elimination process into its own hands..err..paws. Son and I had used a roll of chicken wire to cover over the sweet potatoes that we planted in the garden. It started storming before we were able to put up the roll of wire so it laid in the garden overnight. This morning while out planting flower bulbs, I made a gruesome discovery. "Michael! Come get this thing!" I called, in a fit of disgust! The "better mousetrap" had been created quite by mistake! The roll of chicken wire was obviously left right on top of one of the tunnels. During the night, the rat popped out of the tunnel and directly into the loops of the wire. The wire had acted as a huge mousetrap! The fat rat had met its demise purely out of the unfortunate choice of doorways! He had become trapped....or had he?

I tipped the role of wire on end..the rat simply flopped out. He had not become inescapably stuck in the wire as I had thought. This "better mousetrap" might not have "trapped" him at all! On closer inspection of the rat, I found several small puncture wounds. Obviously, the rat had run into the roll of wire to escape a larger predator! It had sought shelter in the wire but that shelter eventually became its deathbed. Poor rat! Wait! Now I am feeling sorry for this rat? Somehow, I liked it better when I thought the rat had killed itself and had not been chased down by some hungry animal! But then, I guess there are not really many suicidal rats that have guilt complexes about eating my beets!

Playing Cat and Mouse...errr...Rat!

Just a word of warning..Beware of cats bearing gifts! Never! I mean NEVER trust a cat to bring a gift that is most delightful! Last night at just about 11pm, I heard a noise. Thump, thump, thump, rattle, rattle. Something was prancing around on the rooftop. Nothing to worry about! Son's bedroom is upstairs and his windows are accessible from the roof. Whenever Ms Put, the cat, decides she wants inside, she will climb onto the roof and rattle his window. He will open the window, she enters and then meanders down the stairs and into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. This happens almost nightly so the noise was no big surprise tonight. What happened after he opened the window was a big surprise however!

Boom..Boom..Boom..thumpety..thumpety..boom! Oh my goodness! A loud noise resonated throughout the house. Of course everything sounds much louder in the middle of the night, but this was something that I had never heard before. Perhaps the previous sounds were not Ms Put, but someone trying to break into the house! I sneaked from the living room, down the hall and into the dining room..all the while wondering just what I would do if I encountered an intruder. Maybe I should have grabbed something to use as a weapon..you know..just in case I had to boink someone on the noggin. A little late to think of that now! I peeped into the darkness. "Son??? Is that you? Is everything alright?" I asked. He was standing at the foot of the stairs. Stretching around the corner without leaving the step, he flipped on the kitchen light. I noticed that he had the strangest look on his face. I took a step toward him wondering just what was wrong. "WAIT!" he said emphatically. I stopped in my tracks.."What?? What is wrong?" By this time, I was quite jittery..expecting some monster to jump out at me and little did I know that I was not too far off with that assumption.

"Son" I asked "was that Ms Put making all of that noise?" The cat was sitting on the stairs by his feet. "Ummm..yeah." he deadpanned. "What in the world was she doing to make all that racket?" I asked. "Ummm..she brought a friend." Now that is just what I needed..another cat! "A friend? She brought in another cat?" He shook his head..by this time I was getting braver and a mite annoyed at his lack of answers. "Well...what????" I started toward him again, forgetting his warning. He merely pointed at the floor and said "There!"

There...there in the middle of my dining room floor sat the largest rat I have seen in some time! This thing was HUGE! "How did that get in here!" I more or less screeched. So he told the story.. When he opened the window to let her inside, she brought this "gift" in with her. She jumped into the room with a HUGE RAT in her mouth! She plopped the rat in the middle of his floor and proceeded to play with it! This was bad enough but......IT WAS NOT DEAD! The still-kicking rat tried to get away..Ms Put pounced on it. She batted at it a bit and then grabbed the rat and tumbled down the stairs. That was the noise I had heard! Cat and rat bumpety-bumping down the stairs! Oh, my goodness! Now said monstrous rat lay on the middle of my dining room floor, Ms Put sat cleaning herself and Son stood looking bewildered. "DO SOMETHING!!!" I yelled, "HURRY!" The rat's beady eyes were starting to focus on any escape route. This thing was gigantic! Son hurried to the laundry room and grabbed an ice cream bucket. An ice cream bucket..what did he plan on doing with that??? He cautiously stepped toward the gargantuan rat..the tail twitched.."Uhhh, Mom..it is not dead, yet." Well...duh...why did he think I was yelling at him to get rid of the thing! He slammed the bucket down on top of the rat! I felt so much safer once the monster was under the bucket even though the tail still poked out the side. The tail twitched again..Ms Put who was now finished preening herself..looked at the tail sticking out from under the bucket. She pounced on the tail! "Son! Hold down the bucket!" I could just imagine that bucket flying across the room freeing the jailed rat. We were not going through that again!

Then came the problem of what to do with a rat under a bucket! I was quite sure that this monster could eat that entire piece of plastic in a few seconds. I wanted this thing out of my house! Ms Put was still batting at the wiggly tail and Son still held the bucket..it was up to me to use a bit of ingenuity in disposing of the ogre in the ice cream bucket! I remembered how when they were still kids, I had showed them the method of catching a bug in a glass and using a paper to trap it. I handed Son a piece of cardboard. He slid it under the bucket. The rat stayed between the bucket and cardboard and was transported outside. Ms Put was almost outdone with us..her gift had not been accepted graciously. She had been snubbed! Once outside, she grabbed her rat and killed it. There laid the dead rat. Ugh! Son and I went back inside once the extraction had been made. The heart stopped racing..all was back to normal. Then I heard...thump, thump, thump...rattle, rattle, rattle..Ms Put was on the rooftop trying to get back inside! "OH NO, SON! DO NOT OPEN THAT WINDOW!!!"