A Running Nurse

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 5am to Nala sniffing around my dresser. I didn’t think much of it and let her outside for her morning ritual. As I laid back down in bed to get a few more minutes of sleep before the alarm, I heard a noise. Where did that come from? Around the dresser? IN the dresser? I opened a dresser drawer and there was A MOUSE just chilling on top of my jeans. He ran when I saw him. I screamed bloody murder and jumped on the bed instinctively. Then, a moment of brilliance happened and I decided to let Nala in hoping she could catch him. Nala immediately sniffed the dresser persistently. I moved it out from the wall ever so slightly and I saw HIS TAIL!!! It was so disgusting. I may have screamed again and jumped on the bed again. Nala was running from one end of the dresser to the other and then ran into the guest bedroom. After that, she calmed down. He was gone. For now.

I got ready for work being careful to only wear clothes from the dryer and nothing from the dresser as it was dead to me at this point. Upon arriving to work, I relayed my horror story to my coworkers. He was at least this big, I said holding my fingers 5 inches apart. My coworker just looked at me and said, are you sure? what did his tail look like? was it itty itty bitty or big and thick?  My mind flashed back to that awful picture and I said, big and thick. She then informed me that I didn’t have a mouse, I had a RAT. I don’t know why the terminology made it that much worse, but it did. I didn’t want to go home. I have Splinter living in my dresser drawers.

Since finding said rodent, I have:

• spent the night with a friend, leaving Nala to guard the house
• hired a pest control man who came by this morning leaving lots and lots of treats for these guys.
• figured out what the heck it was doing in my bedroom. I have/had one of those fabric heat packs full of grain that you put in the microwave in the corner of my closet. That’s what he was eating. It was like an endless buffet in my closet that I was completely unaware of.
• Cleaned like a crazy person. Grain buffet is now in the vacuum cleaner and the remainder of the heat pack in the trash. Clothes that were in the drawer of doom are now on their 2nd of 3 (or maybe 4) cycles in the washing machine with color safe bleach. Everything I own in that dresser will also be washed accordingly. Bleached my dresser drawers. I don’t care what it does to the wood. Wiped down the laundry basket with bleach. 

In non-rodent news, I also:

• went to the gym; ran and did a warm up and maxed out on weight doing thrusters
• got a sassy new haircut today
• went to the Greek Food Festival and stuffed myself silly on foods I wish I was cool enough to pronounce correctly.
• planted a vegetable garden this week. I think it’s adorable. I didn’t plant my little seed sprouts soon enough and they all wilted except for green peppers, so I just bought some plants. Hopefully soon, I’ll have peppers, okra, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. 
• seeded the back yard with grass seed. Hopefully, I’ll have a full lawn soon.
• watered my new sod like crazy. I feel like a grown up having a real yard.
• ate my first strawberry from my little patio plant.