ROUS meets his Match

First Let me appologize for having to post this.. with any luck I will never have to post something like this again! But the whole event was just so comical that I had to write about it

Quote from Princess Bride 1987:

Buttercup: Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.'s?

Westley: Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist. [Immediately, an R.O.U.S. attacks him]

It has now been proven that the laundry shed appears to be an attractive nuisance for all ROUS's. As mentioned in a previous post an Opossum had wandered in there and made a nest out of a laundry basket full of rags. Based on the advise of several well respected opossum loving sites….and that fact that I’m a self proclaimed pacifist by nature and don’t enjoy conflict especially with rodents…I did nothing.. and hoped it would wander away to greener pastures…

Well it did… it wandered to opossum heaven.. and left me with the lovely parting gift of a unimaginable stench and the duty of disposing of it’s rotting carcass…Never did I think that these words… let alone this comparison… would come out of my mouth… but I much prefer a dead rat to a dead opossum.. Pet Louie I miss you!

So I mentioned my predicament to my BFF (Best Friend Forever).. and low and behold he came to my rescue.. ..again..

Also might I mention that Saturday happened to be the hottest day known to man.. at least so far this year in the San Diego Area.. it reached 100.. and I’m fairly near the coast!

Anywho.. we headed first to Home Depot.. where we were really thinking that they should have a isle for Rodent Removal.. apparently I would frequent that section. We had a somewhat persistent sales person come up to us to sell us a new roof…(boy have you got the wrong crowd) and Mark told sales guy what he was really interested in was if they offered opossum removal services.. cause we’ve got a dead one and he’s really stinking up the place… the sales guy backed away slowly and extricated himself from that conversation rather quickly.

So what kind of supplies does one need for rodent removal…here is what we came up with.. keep in mind we had to improvise a little

A Gas Mask---Budget option=Painters Mask ($5 for a package of 3--something tells me I should keep these on hand)

Industrial Strength Gloves---Budget Option=Rubber Cleaning Gloves ($2)

Robotic Arm (to lift the laundry basket)—Budget Option=Twisted Coat Hanger (Free)

Toxic Waste Suit---Budget Option-Trash Bag Converted to Plastic Body Armor ($0.70 per bag)

Anti Stench Chamber—Budget Option= 3 Commercial Strength Trash Bags thrown into a dumpster ($0.70 per bag)

One Brave Soul with Gag Reflexes of Steel ($2 …that only cost me a 32 ounce slurpee for payment.. best Two Dollars ever spent!)

Stench free laundry room PRICELESS!

See picture above of Mark modeling this marvel of ingenuity.. which had me laughing for hours..

Mark ventured out to the laundry area, hooked the laundry basket with the twisted hanger and dragged it out to the patio.. then he did the unthinkable.. he actually looked underneath the rags in the basket.. and found what can only be described as an opossum explosion.. which he said (at the time.. he now has retracted this statement) was the grossest thing he had ever seen and that never had his gag reflexes been so strong. (Now he says it was definitely in the top 5 Grossest). I of course did not look. We (and when I say we I mean Mark.. cause I was still inside watching from the sliding glass door) tripled commercial trash bagged the entire laundry basket threw it in the back of the truck and dumped it in the a neighboring dumpster (a couple block away). Never to be seen again!

After the horror was over we wondered what could possibly have happened to this thing? I thought it might have been poisoned by the rat bait stations and tried to find a confortable place to sleep it off.. maybe another animal attacked it?... Come to find out when I described these events to Alycia her dad said that dead animals can actually explode due to the gases in their bodies mixed with heat. You learn something new everyday…somethings you don’t even want to know!


See above for comic strip that Mark made to put this in perspective… I think this is worth 10,000 words…

But all I can say is EEEEEEEWWWWWW!