June 26, 2002
Someone or something is leaving us little dead mice in our yard. Shane and I went out there the other day and happened upon two of them, just laying there in the grass. It took us both kind of by surprise. Shane disposed of them. A few days later, I walked out there to find another one, in about the same spot. I quickly ran as far away from it as I could get, shuddering. Shane took care of it again. I hope that whatever is catching these mice and decorating our lawn with them is through. It is really yucky to stumble upon them, thinking that you could have just walked on them if you hadn't been looking.
When we lived down in Vista, we lived sort of out in the country in a guest house. The people who owned the house had 4 dogs, who would frequently catch gophers and the like. One day, the husband of the family was off on a business trip and the wife was home alone. One of the dogs had once again caught a squirrel and was pretending it was it's baby or something. The wife was so squeamish and could not handle it at all, so she chose to ignore it. The squirrel hung around for a few days and started to look nastier and nastier. I happened to be outside at the same time as the wife on afternoon and kind of encouraged her to get rid of it, standing by as moral support. She couldn't do it. "You are going to be a nurse, Erika...." I had to take care of the squirrel. It was very gross.