WILDLIFE

So the costume shop is in an old barn, a granary, to be specific. The family that staked the claim on this land built all the buildings we use, some sound and warm, others in various states of disrepair. The costume shop fits right in the middle of building ratings around here, having been converted once in the 80's to house people rather than store grain, and renovated again in the 90's to store costumes. It has no basement, some insulation and furnace pipes, a patchwork of plumbing which freezes, cracks, and is repaired annually, and plenty of room for critters.

Over the years I have become accustomed to sharing the space with a significant population of mice. I deal with this in two ways; resolving myself to inevitable cleaning tasks, and trying to refrain from screaming when I discover a live one that's probably even more frightened than I am startled. I also encourage any and all of our three cats to spend time in the shop. They are all great mousers and don't mind terrorizing the rodent population now and then.

Spiders also inhabit this shed in the midst of our Ten Acre Wood. My sons would argue that the spider webs lend a legitimate air to the Halloween decorations. I agree to a degree but still dust out the webs inside the building. The webs on the oustside of the building seem to be helping with the Box Elder Bug invasion, and I am therefore reluctant to limit their catch.

Woodpeckers love to drill holes into the painted blue exterior. It's an impressive sound when you're inside and one of the larger Woodpeckers is on a mission. They seem to lose interest once a perfectly round hole is formed and give it up to Starlings and Squirrels.

Now squirrels have never been a problem before. When our old dog, Midnight, roamed the 10 Acre Wood, there weren't ever squirrels any where near the buildings, dilapidated or otherwise. But we are several years past Midnight who met his death on the highway more than three Halloweens ago. We have chosen to keep a smaller but no less fierce dog, Nessie, the Jack Russel Terrorist. She is a fierce hunter, but in the hopes that we can save her from an untimely demise on the highway, she is not allowed to roam the yard at will. This canine restriction has allowed for the squirrel population to encroach upon the civilized areas of the property, and most recently red squirrels have been sighted in the shop. ARG!

Nessie located and caught the first one this summer when I was contentedly sewing on a warm summer evening. That freaked me out, but then again I was thankful for my trusty dog. The cats have nailed four more squirrels inside and out since then. I've been working in the shop for over a week, opened for business on Friday, and haven't been bothered by squirrels at all. In fact, I've turned up no evidence of them whatsoever as I go through the fall ablutions.

Today the damn rodents had their revenge.

After three days of wrestling with the plumbing, last night Dale finally got the toilet operational so that we don't have to run to the house to take a leak. This afternoon I was chatting up a storm with my friends Linda and Katie who were helping today when I walked into the bathroom and started to open the front of my jeans, leaning over to lift the lid of the toilet and . . . .

SSSSCCCCCCRRRREEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM andalmostwetmypants!

There was a dead (perhaps drowned would be a better word) squirrel belly up, tail down-the-hole in the toilet. I ran to the house clutching my pants to find a safe toilet. Meanwhile, Katie and Linda, knowing my husband too well, checked the toilet in the costume shop to make sure my gutteral scream wasn't the result of a prank. Indeed, it was a dead, formerly red squirrel afloat in the toilet bowl. At least I hadn't screamed like a horror-movie-girl over nothing.

How the hell that thing got in there when the top was down is beyond me. Two of our cats did spend the night in the shop last night. I can only imagine there must have been one amazing chase that drove the squirrel into the bathroom for refuge. The door was closed so that cats couldn't follow, but there is a gap at the top of the door, and an even smaller gap at the lid of the toilet. So either the squirrel thought it was an escape hatch, or it was really thirsty. My mother lost a pet squirrel to a toilet bowl drowning once. She was pretty bummed and I thought it was kind of funny. Okay, so I have a twisted sense of humor and now the damn squirrels have taken their revenge. I hope that's the end of it.

So, if that doesn't make everyone want to come out and rent a costume I don't know what will.

Stay tumed for our daily blog coming to you from Dress Me Up Costume Rental, North Miesville, Minnesota!