The other night, I was woken out of a dead sleep by my cat’s meowing. It was about 3:45, and in my tired brain, I thought she was trapped in a room somewhere in the house. I got up and walked around, listening for where she might be, but had no luck finding her. This, of course, woke up the dogs. I went back to bed and tried to get back to sleep, but then heard her again.
At this point, I realized she was outside, so I went to the back door to let her in. As I said, the dogs were now up, so I let them out to take care of business. I figured I’d go back to bed for a while, then get them later.
I laid down for maybe 5 minutes before getting back up to get the dogs. I stood at the back door and called them, but they didn’t come. Using my flashlight, I realized they were enthralled with something, so I went to find out what.
Turns out it was a dead rodent.
I got Floki away from it and back in the house, then when I turned to get Siggy, she had carried the thing onto the deck. She was so proud of herself. She was trotting like she just won the grand prize. I wasn’t impressed. I told her to drop it, which she did because she’s a good girl, and then I took her inside.
I grabbed some gloves, the dust pan, and a ziplock bag to put the corpse in. I stepped onto the deck and stared at the creature. It had been raining, so the fur was wet and matted to its body—although part of that was probably also from being in both dogs’ mouths—its front legs were curled up, and its eyes were closed.
Nope, I thought. I’m not dealing with this now.
I went back inside, put my supplies on the counter, and went back to bed. Where I dreamed of rodents.
When I got up later, while the dogs were eating breakfast, I grabbed the shovel and took care of the poor creature. I have no doubt the cat is the suspect in the murder. This isn’t the first time we’ve found a dead rodent at the house, and Floki found another one later that morning.
I don’t blame her. She’s just doing what comes naturally, but there are just some things I can’t deal with that early in the morning.
