Tales of a Mighty Mouser--Part Two

So in my original post about Sunny's exterminator position, Tales of a Mighty Mouser, I mentioned that there was another incident which merited its own post.  I decided to stop being a tease and share.

Now, just to warn you, this is not one for the faint of heart.  It is a testament to the great love I bear my sweet furry beast that he was ever allowed back into my room after this particular incident.

Now, when there's a mouse around, there are usually some early warning signs.  Sunny will hear things, or smell things and I will notice him going on the prowl.  He'll investigate corners and check behind doors.  I've learned to recognize the warning signs that something has found it's way in, and is soon to find its way out the hard way.

This time, there were no such warnings.  It was mid-July.  It was the first time that I was going to be the person solely responsible for my company's presence at our biggest national conference.  This was our target group of customers and I was one of two who represented the advance team, arriving early to start the setup, only to be joined by the rest of the crew later.

To say that I was wound up, would be an understatement.  I had been working late to get things together and that meant that all of my personal packing was happening last minute.  Now, Sunny is not a fan of my suitcase.  I've done enough business travel that he knows what it means and is less than thrilled when he sees it out and open.  I had been running around like crazy to get everything done.  I was pretty sure I was finished and was going to crash, praying I could shut my brain off long enough to sleep.

I crawled into bed exhausted and wired.  Within moments, Sunny was there.  I made short shrift of his evening ritual of scritches and treats, trying to get to sleep as quickly as possible.  Once that was done, Sunny did something very unusual.  He started digging at the covers and sniffing.  Now, you have to understand, I am not one for making beds and with the July heat, the covers were bunched up in the middle of the bed where I had shoved them in order to keep cool.

I pushed Sunny away and told him to stop being a nudge, because I needed to sleep.  He came back and did it again.  I pushed him away again.  Again he came back.  I gave up.  I rolled over, presenting him with my back, did my best to ignore him and eventually managed to fall asleep.

Big mistake.

I got up the next day and uncharacteristically jumped out of bed right away to get going.  Since I was going to be away for a few days, I decided to make the bed.

You do know where this is going right?

As I shook out the covers, to my intense horror, I discovered the reason for Sunny's odd behavior of the previous evening.  A tiny furry body fell out from the rumpled comforter and sheets.  I cannot tell you how badly I shuddered with the pure skeeve of having spent the night, blissfully slumbering with a dead mouse in my bed.  It was a very good thing that there was no food in my system.

The bed got stripped and the offending corpse tossed out into the bushes.  I was still twitching when I got to the office to meet my co-worker and collect a few things before my flight.  I called my brother, whose squeamish tendencies can, usually, only be brought out by needles being stuck into him summed it up brilliantly...EEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Yeah.  That about covers it.