Life experience - the day of the squirrel

Every so often I have to reach into the archives of experience and pull one out.  Today is one of those days.  I started blogging because I wanted to journal varying life experiences and although I could keep them to myself, sharing them offers insight into who I am as a person.  Some could say so what……so why then are you reading this?  LOL!  Really though, my Mom is going through dementia and I know that what is going on now, is affecting the memories we would prefer to have kept rather than the ones we are now seeing.  That said, should I walk that road as well, my family will have these snapshots of thoughts to remember me by.

Last summer, I took a certified nursing assistant course at our local community college.  At the age of 54, this was a monumental endeavor, not because it was difficult but more because I had gotten stuck in a rut and the economy was saying you may have to “do” something else and I had said to my husband, whom I work with, if I have to do something else, I want to do what I want to do.  BTW…..I’m still not doing it!  L

Anyway, I came home from class one day and I was absolutely whipped.  Between stress, long days, early mornings and homework, this older body needed a nap.  Bruce and I have 2 golden retrievers and they are both loving dogs, when they greet you, they each bring a “prize” to you.  Anyway, as mentioned I was tired.  I came home from school, dropped my books on the kitchen table and immediately headed for our bedroom to lay down.  I noticed that our decorative pillows were askew, but didn’t think anything of it because I know our dogs play the game we call wild.  Wild is where one dog chases the other dog around the house and they sometimes jump up on the bed, sliding and then jump off continuing their run.  BTW…..the bed is the only furniture they are allowed up on! 

I’ve kicked off my shoes and have my right leg poised mid-air at the same time I am moving the decorative pillow out of the way, when my glance thankfully happens to look at the bed just as I’m about to land in it and lo and behold there, what would have been inches from my face, was the carcass of a dead squirrel. 

The scream that I elicited was at decibels beyond what I ever knew I could produce!  One might have thought I was about to be attacked.  Somehow I am able to contort my body so that I don’t land on this thing, all the while uttering ew, ew, ew and gross.  I am beyond freaked out because this looked like an indian had scalped it and my immediate thought was, where the heck was the rest of it?!!!

My heart rate was beyond my normal 80% workout heart rate and I was in a cold sweat.  I didn’t have a clue what to do, thus running out shutting my bedroom doors (as if this thing was going to be reincarnated in a moment) and jumped up and down in the kitchen.  I shakily reach for the phone to call Bruce, he doesn’t answer.  I grab a beer from the refrigerator?  Don’t know why exactly and then call Brooke, who laughs at me!  I re-try Bruce who answers this time and states that maybe my neighbor is home and can come get it.  While on the phone, I am surveying the rest of the house, looking for the rest of the body and wondering which of the girls thought that this would make a good gift for me!!!

I go out to the garage, grab a long handled shovel and proceed to go back into the bedroom to pick this thing up, deciding first to get my camera with the telephoto lens to take a picture as proof that this not a figment of my imagination!!!  Yuck!  I put the blade of the shovel underneath the carcass and immediately put it out on the deck, I’m not even brave enough to put it in a bag and throw it out!

I toy with the idea of throwing out the bedspread, but it was only a week or two old and I really didn’t have the money to do that.  I stripped the bed down, including the mattress cover and start doing the wash, all the while trying to envision what sleep number the dog was enjoying this treat on!  Can you just picture how gross this was?

I share this episode on facebook as well as with the wife of the neighbor I was supposed to call to see if he could come get it.  Basically I am laughed at, that I can withstand….I am just looking forward to the day when they have their own adventure with wild life to share, maybe then they won’t think it so darn funny!  J