Facing Fears

We all have fears - it's part of being human. I faced one of mine this morning and am really proud of myself.

I came home late last night (officially early morning) after many delayed and cancelled flights. I turned on the lights in my house to discover that my cats took their stern lecture a few weeks ago to heart.

I had a dead mouse in the middle of my living room. A very flattened, played with but dead mouse.

Since it was almost 2am I decided I would deal lot better with in the light of day with some sleep.

I call my mom at 8am - "Mom, is dad still at the house? I have a dead mouse in my house" to find out that he is already at work. I call my dad but he does not answer.

I'm a single girl in a house with a dead mouse. I get two large dust pans and inch up to the flattened but very apparently dead mouse. I get close to the mouse and realize I just can't do it.

I call my mom again. She tells me to get a shovel - furthering my distance from the dead mouse should make it easier. Moms are always full of good ideas.

I get my shovel. I attempt to shovel up the mouse and realize he's really stuck to my hardwood floor. My cat Moby comes over to check on her kill (I have no doubt that it was Moby amongst all my cats who killed the mouse, she's the only female). I'm yelling at my cat to get away from the possibly diseased dead mouse as I do not want her to get sick (I guess I forgot that she had already spent a lot of time with him).

I call my mom again and tell her how stuck Mickey is to the floor. She's laughing at this point. She tells me to be careful of my hardwood floors and not to scratch them. Mickey is flattened and stuck against my floor - the least of my concerns right now is scratching my floors.

I then try again with the shovel - this time pushing much harder and then out of nowhere dead Mickey takes flight into the air. I run screaming into my kitchen.

I take a huge deep breath and with a large broom and shovel I am sweep up Mickey and run my shovel outside. I toss dead Mickey into the snowy yard and wish him well in the next life.

So much trauma for so early in the morning. I have now faced my fear of dead mice. I don't think the next time the situation arises it will be as traumatic but it definitely won't be enjoyable.

I call my mom one last time and tell her of my triumph. I get a big woo hoo out of her and even an atta girl.

2 mice in two weeks - ick and yuck. The weather needs to get warmer so the creatures will live in their habitat instead of mine.