It's always something...

.... and usually, 'something' always happens when my husband is working.

We have a utility closet between the kitchen and the breakfast room. That closet has louvered doors and contains the heater/air-conditioning unit. The only other things behind those louvered doors are glue-traps for catching mice.

My inside cat Sweet Pea walked by that closet earlier this evening and he stopped in his little kitty-tracks and stared at the louvered doors.  Then he got up real close to the slats in the doors and he sniffed..... I actually heard his breath and saw his whiskers twitching.  I was reading a book at the table in the breakfast room, and clearly saw that Sweet Pea was not happy with what he had detected behind those doors.

When a mouse gets caught on a glue-trap, Sweet Pea will stand by the door and meow, sort of like "If you open these doors for me, I'll take care of that nasty little rodent for you."  (He doesn't understand that messing with a glue-trapped mouse will also adhere his kitty-self to the sticky glue.)  What I usually do when that happens is pick up Sweet Pea and put him in the TV room and close that door before I open the closet to see what's caught on the glue-trap.  In the beginning of these mice adventures, I would ask my husband to dispose of the poor little mouse, but I've since learned to grit my teeth and use a four-foot-long clippy thing to pick up the glue-trap, mouse and all, and put it into a trash bag and carry it outside to the garbage can..... all the while apologizing to the mouse.

But on this day..... with Sweet Pea first twitching his whiskers and then hissing at those louvered doors, I found that every ounce of bravery that might be within me just disappeared... and I was afraid to open the closet doors.  I put Sweet Pea into the TV room and called our friends J and J up the road. I hated to bother them for such a questionable favor, but there was no way around it.  I kept watching the bottom of that closet door while I told them the problem.  They were at my back door within minutes.

J and I watched as her husband opened the door.... he was armed with a flash-light, a clippy thing, and a walking stick.  Never let it be said that we let the man go into battle without the proper weapons.  J opened the door.... J and I were holding our breath, I think..... we watched the beam of the flash-light.... and there was nothing in there except half a dozen glue-traps, all of them mouse-less. Two of the traps were decorated with dead scorpions.

J seemed to think that possibly a snake had gotten up into that closet from below the house..... there are small spaces near the ductwork that a snake could possibly slither into... the same spaces that the field mice find when they're looking to get out from the cold and into a warm spot next to a furnace. Except that it was very warm today..... and don't these godforsaken snakes have somewhere else to go other than this house?!

I thanked J and J for their patience with my inability to adapt to all things country out here in the hills.  They even asked if I wanted to come up to their house till my husband got home from work.  And leave Sweet Pea here by himself to fight the battle?  I can't be that heartless... he's a very good cat. 

Sweet Pea walked by the utility closet after J and J went back home..... he gave the bottom of the door a little sniff. Then he walked about two feet away from it and sat down to keep watch. He didn't hiss, and his whiskers didn't twitch.  I went into the breakfast room and finished reading my book.

When Sweet Pea walked into the TV room a little while ago, I shut that door, and opened up the door to the utility closet. Brave soul that I am..... I opened up two new boxes of those glue-traps.... and spread them all around the floor surrounding the heater/air-conditioner unit.  The inside of that closet now looks like a miniature city with model train tracks going round and round... just about every inch of that white floor is lined with black glue-traps.  If there is indeed something in that closet, it won't be able to move three inches without getting hopelessly stuck.