FOR THE LOVE!

When I married K, I was fortunate enough to inherit what he likes to call, "Luck of the Bowen." Luck of the Bowen is a very real phenomenon involving none other than bad, bad, bad luck. This phenomenon occurs on a regular basis, and can be magnified during big events. For example, during our move it rained the entire day. Luck of the Bowen. During the middle of washing sheets / towels to use the first night we moved in, a belt popped and the dryer completely stopped working. Luck of the Bowen. This "luck" is even contagious. The morning of the move when my Dad woke up to transfer a load to our new house, his pickup wouldn't start and was out of commission for the rest of the move. LUCK OF THE BOWEN!

You can only imagine my absolute disgust, frustration, and exasperation with this stupid luck when I began to see 3 signs of RATS / MICE in our BRAND NEW HOUSE! FOR THE LOVE!!!!!! Wasn't the rat problem at our old house enough? Compounded by roaches and snakes?? That is all the vermin I can stand for one lifetime. Really, it is. Yet - oh how the signs point to the fact that we're going to have to face this problem all over again. (Insert desperate sigh).

SIGN #1:
On multiple occasions, I've heard a pitter patter overhead while both sitting in the study and hanging out in B's room. This is where the denial begins, and instead of thinking about rats in our attic, I blame it on cute squirrels prancing around on our roof with lovely acorns in their mouths. Surely it's just squirrels running along the shingles...

SIGN #2:
B and I like to sit outside on the back porch sometimes. One day last week it was raining and I had her all snuggled up in a blanket while we sat at the patio table. There really are a LOT of squirrels in our yard since we have pecan trees nearby, so we were watching them play in the trees and along the top of the fence. I'm pretty sure our conversation went something like, "B - look at that squi - AAAHHHH!!!!!" as I saw a MOUSE running along the bottom runner on the fence. It went all the way across the back, then turned the corner and went up towards our house. Needless to say we promptly ran inside and I said a prayer that the rodent was not running for cover into the same house that I was running to for cover. This one is much harder to deny, so I had to get creative and blame it on the neighbors. We've lived here for 2 months. SURELY we don't have rats or mice. Surely it's just the neighbors. Poor mice-infested neighbors...

SIGN #3:
I have an AWESOME tomato plant growing this year. It makes me so proud to know that I've kept it alive by remembering to water it regularly. I can't take full credit as my Dad's the one who pruned it back this summer, fertilized it, and selected appropriate placement in the sun to encourage it to grow. I mean really - LOOK at all this fruit and foliage!!!!


SO - in the process of getting out a little fertilizer from the garage as a snack for my tomato plant, I noticed that both corners of the bag had busted. I tried to think it was a coincidence (must just be an old bag?), but then noticed that Abby's dog food that had been sitting in the garage had a few tid bits of food laying on the ground beside the bag. Another coincidence (another old bag?), or a rodent looking for food?? SURELY a coincidence.

Everything came to a head last night when K claims he saw a rat running in our garage. On a 2nd occasion later that night when going to put out traps he said, "I just saw it jump from your golf bag to the trailer." This A) really makes me want to NEVER use my clubs again ever and B) makes parking in the garage a NIGHTMARE instead of a luxury!!!!!!!!!!!! B) makes me very sad and angry as this was one of the things I was MOST looking forward to about our new house! And need I remind you that in our old house we had a detached garage, meaning there was substantial separation from the rodents. In our new house? Oh yes - attached. Meaning you better make darn sure nothing runs inside behind you as you enter the house. FOR THE LOVE!!!