Critter Update

I am finishing up the packing for our trip to Germany today. Being that the temperatures in Germany will be in the 30s and 40s and the temperatures here in Chennai still get well into the 80s every day, winter clothing is a must. Besides sweaters and jeans, we will definitely need coats, hats, gloves, etc. We'll be walking around outside quite a bit as I plan to walk from the hotel to our friends' house at least one way every day. According to the map I pull up on the internet, it will be about a 1.5 mile walk. Why walk in the cold? Well we decided it would not be the best idea in the world to rent a car while we are there. Being that we haven't really drove ourselves much in the last year, and being that we ride around in the India traffic, we didn't feel that it would be safe for us to try to navigate ourselves around unfamiliar territory in a foreign country. Plus, I am really missing walking...we walked everywhere in Beijing. At the time, I thought walking in Beijing was somewhat hazardous, but in hindsight and compared with walking here in Chennai, Beijing was quite a nice place to walk around. So, anyway, I figure we can just bundle up in Germany and get some exercise in every day...probably will need it after what promises to be a good Thanksgiving feast.

Anyway, this brings me up to the critter update...I needed to dig out our winter coats, etc. Being that our house doesn't have a lot of storage in it, when I was unpacking, I just put all of our winter gear into a cardboard box and shoved it in the corner in our spare bedroom...not like we were going to need it any time soon here in Chennai. On top of this box was another box with our winter boots in it and a basket with clothes that need to be donated to charity. So, I move the basket and smaller box to get to the big box full of coats. I open the box and right away know that our critter (right now I'm still thinking that we have a single critter and not multiple critters) has been living in this box...let's us say there are bathroom remnants every where in the box.

So, I'll be the first to admit that at times I don't really think about things before I do them. No, I didn't go digging through the box...back to that in a minute. Nope, I was storing 4 bags of cat food right next to this box. When we moved here, we had thought we would get a kitten (now, we probably won't, but that's a whole other long story), so I had my mom put some cat food into our food shipment. Now, what was I thinking just leaving the cat food sitting out??? This is India...you just don't do stuff like that! So, sure enough, on the side of one of the bags is a dime sized hole. Let's just say that by the number of droppings in this box, cat food must be full of fiber!

What to do? What to do? I really needed to get the hats and gloves out of this box (and now I have to wash them). Now, I'm not scared of mice at all. However, I didn't really want to go digging through the box by myself, because I really didn't want to have it come flying out at me and end up who knows where in the house. I have doubts of whether or not I would be able to trap and kill the thing myself. Plus, what if it is the bigger version of a mouse? Don't even want to really think about this, but who knows? So, time to call in Krishnan, our driver.

We definitely don't ever have any excitement around our house. We are very boring people. No kids. No pets. Don't entertain very often. Nothing exciting ever really happens around here...with the exception of the occasional snake in the yard, our guards must be bored out of their minds most days.

So I get Krishnan to tell him what the situation is. He comes running with the head security guard...you would have thought there was a fire as quickly as they came running! They carry the box out of the house, down the driveway, and outside the gates to the dirt road next to our property. By this time, the other two security guards plus the gardener have arrived from their various posts around the house. Excitement, excitement!

What did we find in the box? Nothing but a bunch of droppings. They pulled all of the coats, hats, and gloves out, and no critter was found. Major let down! However, the stinking little varmint has chewed a hole in the sleeve of my good long black dress coat plus numerous holes in hats and gloves. Ughh! It must now die!

So, now my sticky traps are set up in a different room. I'm more than determined now to catch this beast! I will win! It has been a long battle, but in the end, I will be victorious! Plus, if I don't catch the critter soon, we are going to have big problems with another food shipment set to arrive any day now. Not so concerned about my food, but once again we are storing food for a family moving here in January. I'm afraid if the thing isn't caught before we leave for the U.S. in two weeks, we will find a major mess when we return.

I'm off to wash the winter clothes and to bait my sticky traps...this time with cat food! Plus, I guess I need to find a container to house the 3 bags of uneaten cat food. Oh well, they are probably full of bugs by now anyways.