Ah, the welcoming stench of death
So, as I always do even though I hate myself every single time I do it and vow I'll never do it again, I took the 6 p.m. flight from California last night. You know, the one that gets into Chicago around midnight, and doesn't get me home until after 1 a.m. But last night's homecoming was even worse than usual, because the minute I walked into my apartment, I knew that something had died here in the week I've been gone.
It's not either of my cats, who are fine but twitchy from my being gone, with an added twitch of Something's Rotting Here. I can't find it, of course. I've looked in every room, under every piece of furniture, but I can't find it or anything else that might be giving off that smell--no little cat-vomit piles that I can find. Worse, I'm pretty sure it's in my bedroom. The rest of the place aired right out, but in there, it's... not so fresh. Horrible dreams of death and decay and waking up in pools of my own blood all night/morning. Blerch. I'm going to have to look under every single thing in that room tonight.
The last time this happened (which has only been one time, because I live on the third floor and have never had a rodent problem) was when I had my door buzzer rewired and the guy left the wallboard uncovered for several days and a mouse got in. I knew immediately from the way the cats were acting that there was a mouse in the place, and even saw Scout carrying it around once, but couldn't catch it. Three days I hunted that thing, until the apartment started smelling like it does now, and I found that it had escaped up a dangling something on my bed, crawled into the summer-folded-over comforter at the foot of my bed, and died there.
I kind of don't want to go to work today. I'd rather stay home and unpack and do a search-and-destroy on the dead thing, and do intensive cuddle-therapy with my love-starved kitties. But to work I must go. Soonish, so I should probably get dressed.
It's not either of my cats, who are fine but twitchy from my being gone, with an added twitch of Something's Rotting Here. I can't find it, of course. I've looked in every room, under every piece of furniture, but I can't find it or anything else that might be giving off that smell--no little cat-vomit piles that I can find. Worse, I'm pretty sure it's in my bedroom. The rest of the place aired right out, but in there, it's... not so fresh. Horrible dreams of death and decay and waking up in pools of my own blood all night/morning. Blerch. I'm going to have to look under every single thing in that room tonight.
The last time this happened (which has only been one time, because I live on the third floor and have never had a rodent problem) was when I had my door buzzer rewired and the guy left the wallboard uncovered for several days and a mouse got in. I knew immediately from the way the cats were acting that there was a mouse in the place, and even saw Scout carrying it around once, but couldn't catch it. Three days I hunted that thing, until the apartment started smelling like it does now, and I found that it had escaped up a dangling something on my bed, crawled into the summer-folded-over comforter at the foot of my bed, and died there.
I kind of don't want to go to work today. I'd rather stay home and unpack and do a search-and-destroy on the dead thing, and do intensive cuddle-therapy with my love-starved kitties. But to work I must go. Soonish, so I should probably get dressed.