Mice and snakes and raccoons (oh my!)

Ranch

There are lots of benefits to living on our 'ranch.' We don't have loud neighbors, there is lots of space for the dogs to run, and we have the opportunity to raise cattle. Unfortunately, living in a ranch house (that is 100+ years old, mind you) means that we have our share of unwelcome critters to deal with as well. Our basement walls are made of boulders and some kind of cement, we figure it was laid before concrete was invented. Around October the mice started burrowing their way through this soft cement into our lovely home. We had seen evidence of mice in the basement before and could live with it... until they started invading our main floor and my cupboards. I flipped. There are few things more disgusting than discovering your brand new bag of powdered sugar has become the nesting and breeding ground for these creatures - ick. After trapping the cupboard invaders S and I sat down and had a long talk. We knew what we had to do... get a cat. Neither one of us are cat people, but we decided it was better than living amongst mice all winter.

The cat was great. We got Boots for free from craigslist. She was a known mouser and very friendly. Unfortunately, Chance was not thrilled about the cat situation. We thought she would fight back a little (she didn't) and that eventually we could all live together in harmony... without mice. This obviously didn't happen. No matter what we tried - spray bottles, shock collars, yelling - Chance and Boots were never going to be friends. I guess we were trying to go against nature. We probably should have known better than to expect that of a yellow lab (who has been trained and genetically selected to hunt and chase small, furry animals). After a month of Boots spending her life in the rafters of the basement, she became a barn cat. She now owns the loft, and teases Chance by staying just out of his reach. Chance would really like to learn to climb ladders - his ultimate goal in life now seems to get that cat. Still, he and a raccoon family that Spencer attempts to shoot at every couple months also tend to do a number on her cat food supply.

Boots' month in the house seemed to diminish the mouse problem. We had a few flare-ups where I would find taco seasoning packets or flour dispersed throughout several cabinets, but spring came and the mice seem to have retreated outside... for now. I was pretty excited about living creature-free for a few months; but recently I was cleaning the basement and found (dun-dun-dun) a snake skin. GROSS. If there is a creature worse than a mouse living in your house... it's a snake. Now a logical person would probably say, "oh, it's a harmless snake and it should take care of your mouse problem." In this instance, I am not that logical person. I HATE snakes. They move unnaturally and just freak me out - always have and always will. The only person I know who is more freaked out by snakes than I am is... my husband. After I told him I found the snake skin he declared he was never going into the basement again (and really hasn't since). This actually plays out pretty well for him, considering the washer and dryer are downstairs - I wonder if that had anything to do with his declaration. Still, I live in fear that one day I will open my shower curtain and find a bathtub full of snakes. After hearing enough horror stories, I always check the toilet before sitting down to make sure one isn't coiled up in there too - eww!

The worst snake story I have happened the summer before my Sophomore year in college. I was living with Leanne and Britni at the time (and LOVING it). Somehow, a tiny little (but still incredibly disgusting) snake got into our apartment and was laying in the middle of the kitchen where Britni found it. She didn't know what to do with it and wanted to be sure we knew a snake had gotten into our house, so she put it in a ziploc bag and laid it on the coffee table. I came home, made supper, and was eating at said coffee table before realizing that a bag with a LIVE SNAKE in it was about 6 inches from my plate. I almost died. I was freaked out by snakes before then, but have since sworn a vendetta against them. Yesterday I was mowing the lawn and saw a snake. I ran over him. Damn snakes.

Thanks for reading,
C