Attack of the Animals

I swear Mother Nature was out to get me today.  It began with the washer/dryer.  While Austin was preparing to stack the washer/dryer, I thought it would be a good time to get out the vacuum and clean out the dryer vent, which you are supposed to do on a regular basis but had never been done in five years.  As I was vacuuming out all the lint, a large chunk hit the attachment.  I picked it off and turned it over and over trying to figure out what in the world it was.  After a couple minutes of handling the golf ball sized object, I recognized the "string" coming out of it as a tail and could make out a few tiny feet.  I had been holding a very dead, petrified, lint-covered mouse.  Eewww!!!!  I immediately dropped it in the trash and washed my hands over and over.  They didn't feel clean for the rest of the day.

I had a Bible Study in Cedar Falls at night followed by a late-night trip to Target & Wal-mart.  I got home around 11:30pm and was unloading the van.  As I returned to the garage for my second trip, I noticed a bat flying around inside the garage (I had already closed the door).  Then something fuzzy and white caught my eye.  At first, I though it was a cat.  Upon further examination, I discovered an ugly possum staring down at me from the garage rails.  My first instinct was to open the garage door.  That got rid of the bat, but then I was afraid the possum would get squished in the door.  Turns out he just crawled on top of the door and rode it up.  I dove into the van to let me heart-rate return to something normal while he sat there staring at me.   I finally decided to make a run for it and shut the garage door again.  He rode the door back down on the outside, leaving little footprints all the way down.

After Googling "opossum" from the safety of the kitchen, I learned they are relatively harmless unless cornered.  It also explained the "dead animal" odor that I had noticed in the garage for the last couple days, and likely explains why the plastic garbage can containing the bird seed has holes chewed in it.

**Note** A few days after this incident I noticed possum roadkill four blocks from our house.  I'm hoping it was this guy.