I Almost Evacuated the Premises

About three or four weeks ago (I seriously lose track of time) I was lying on the couch watching TV and The Tide was otherwise occupied in the kitchen, more than likely rummaging around for a crumb or two. All of a sudden, she was on one side of the kitchen staring down the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen and growling at them as if they were about to come alive and attack us. To say I was concerned about this situation was kind of an understatement. Nothing I did seemed to appease her.

The same thing happened another time or two and I would open up the cabinets for her and she basically climbed inside looking for whatever it was she saw. There is an air duct in one of my kitchen cabinets and at one point she stuck her head as far as it would go between the air duct and the hole in the cabinet that she ended up cutting her mouth. Clearly, she was a dog obsessed.

One night while I was at a football game and Erika and Kendra were making use of my television, she started up again with barking and growling at the kitchen cabinet and they weren't sure what to do either. So, I again let her stick her head inside the cabinet. A few days later, I cleaned everything out of the cabinets. I feared there may be a mouse in the house and wanted to (apprehensively) look around for proof. I found nothing, but did manage to get those cabinets much straighter than they have been in quite a while.

For the past week or so, she hasn't growled or barked at the cabinets and that has been a blessing because I was kind of able to put all thoughts of a potential rodent out of my mind. Then came Sunday night and can I just say that there are times in a woman's life when having a husband would be really handy and Sunday night was one of these instances. I was in the living room and heard The Tide's paw tapping on the floor like she was trying to catch a bug. I have cave crickets in my house all the time and figured that was what I would find when I went into the kitchen. I instead found nothing, but The Tide was intently staring at the bottom of the stove so I figured that cave cricket had gone under the stove. I took this opportunity to fold some laundry and while I was doing that I heard The Tide start barking and tapping her paw again. I looked up from the laundry only to find a large roach crawl out from under the stove and then back under. All I could do was scream bloody murder - nonstop screaming. I was frozen in time. Roaches I cannot handle. This is the first such rodent that I have encountered at my house and I wanted to run for the hills.

From that moment on I have been terrified of going anywhere near the stove. I immediately text the bug man and told him I had encountered a huge roach that nearly scared the life out of me and to please spray extra around the stove and vent. He said he would take care of it.  I told Erika I was hesitant to even tell this story because I didn't want y'all thinking I have a dirty house. She assured me my house is not dirty and to go ahead and put it on the blog; so, here it is.

On Monday, my brother came over for dinner and I had to venture near the stove since I was doing some cooking. Thank the good Lord in Heaven I did not encounter any large man eating roach. I asked Justin to please pull the stove out from the wall and see if there were any roaches back there and please stomp and dispose of any that he finds. He found none.

Justin left around 9:00 and I went to bed a little after 10:00. About one minute after I turned off all electronic devices and laid my head down, The Tide bolted out of the bed as if there was an intruder in the house. She immediately went to the vent in the bedroom and became, once again, a dog obsessed. I am here to tell you that this also nearly scared the life out of me. She growled, she howled, she whined, she barked and she pawed at that vent as if she were in a digging contest. Her sniffer was in turbo mode and she was like a bloodhound treeing a raccoon. She went from the kitchen to the vent in the bedroom and back and forth and back and forth.

I called Justin and told him I might need him to come over. I was screaming and standing on top of furniture and my heart was about to beat out of my chest. A rodent was on the verge of causing me to pack my bags and hit the road. At this point, The Tide had literally taken the vent out of the floor and I was afraid for my life. I told Justin I was going to sleep in the guest room. He laughed and laughed at me and told me I could come over and stay with him (my parents are out of town). I said I might, but I sure would be embarrassed to tell people a roach (or mouse) ran me out of my own house.  I had some clean laundry on the guest bed and I removed it and crawled into bed. The Tide jumped up in the bed as well...for all of two minutes before her sniffer alerted her and she ran over to the vent in the guest room and started pawing at it.

I finally went into the den, leaving lights on in both bedrooms and the bathroom and settled for sleeping on the couch. Just as I started dozing off, The Tide came and jumped on the couch, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. She finally settled down as well and we spent a not so restful evening on the couch, hopefully away from whatever rodents are lurking beneath and in the crevices of my home.

I called the bug man today. Thursday is my normal service day and I wanted him to be aware of the torture I was experiencing in the darkness of the night. I told him I kind of thought there might be a mouse even though I have not seen the little devil nor have I seen any mouse droppings. He said he felt certain it was a mouse and that he had a lady call him at 9:00 last night with a mouse problem and he told her he would come out the next day but for the night he recommended the snap traps. He told me that he really likes the snap traps and I could try those. I told him there was no way on earth I would be using a snap trap in my house. If I were to catch something I would certainly have to evacuate the building until I could find someone to dispose of the mouse. He has caught four mice at his own home this past week. Apparently Madison County is experiencing a problem with mice these days.

So, instead of coming on his normal Thursday, he is coming out on Wednesday and will put some of those mice pellets under the house that kill the mice and make them disintegrate or whatever without being stinky. Lord help me, I hope this works. He said it usually takes 3-5 days for the pellets to take effect; that it's not an instant thing. I said, that's okay because I just cannot deal with catching a mouse in a trap. In the meantime, I plan to sleep with a few lights on and pray that I will be able to get at least a few hours rest each night. So help me, if I ever see this creature of torment, I may just leave and never return. You can rest assured that I will keep you posted on the progress of this rodent infestation.