the love of the criters...

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting on the deck reading a magazine in the late afternoon and I could tell Booger was in the backyard by her signature half meow/chirp thing she does. I vaguely made note that she was coming closer and up the steps of the deck as her chirps got closer. When her she rounded the corner of the table towards the loveseat, I lowered my magazine to say hello. This would be the exact moment that she began to crouch down to jump up on my lap and I began to scream "no - No - NO - DOWN! NO!"

You see, ever since we've found homes for the last of the kittens, Booger has insisted on still bringing her latest kills to the house. This one happened to be in her mouth and still very much alive and thought she should share it with me. When I declined her very generous offer, she merely dropped it where she was, walked a few feet away and stretched out in the sun.

With the very large, still breathing, yet traumatized mouse laying between me and the patio door.... I used my cell phone to call Mike in the basement, telling him he needed to "Get Up Here Now!" As he opens the door, my displeasure is evident by my pose.. legs and feet curled up under me while watching and pointing at the poor creature left as a sacrifice before me.

His sympathetic "the poor thing!" was followed by the crunch of it's skull reverberating through the deck as he stepped on it's head! "AH! that's so gross!" was the only thing I could muster as he wheeled it off the deck onto the lawn. Booger did not even bother to lift her head to take notice of the entire transaction. I did, however, notice Vinnie playing with the remains in the back yard later in the day, to which I thought, at least it didn't go to waste.

So what is the object of this tale, to which I expose you today?

It just so happens that this very morning, as I'm going to put the dogs out, I'm trying to reach the cable on front porch by reaching over the dead chipmunk left at the back door last night. ...Which is laying next to the dead mouse from the day before. ...Which also reminds me that there is a dead mole by the patio door from some point earlier in the week...

....texting Taylor right now... "please removed the carcasses from the deck and front porch today"