Glenn, The Rat Killer

After ten days of unseasonable cold and snow that threw a wrench into Christmas (but did not stop it from coming -- it came! Somehow or other, it came just the same!), the snow was gone except for patches, the roads were clear, and things were getting back to normal.

Then, the stench.

First Glenn blamed it on the unruly pile of toys in the corner of the family room, hypothesizing that there was rotten food or undetected leaked water. After sorting through it all (and the corner is much neater!) I found no food, no signs of a leak, and the smell remained. My sluggish sense memory finally recalled, "Dead animal."

An investigation by Glenn the next morning in our storage space under the house yielded a dead mouse and a dead bird, as well as a couple of holes proving that something came in from outside.

Still the stench remained.

So back into the stench Glenn went, and off I went to run errands, kids in tow. Suddenly my phone rang. "I found it!" he cried triumphantly. It turns out it was a huge dead rat right on top of the vent, snuggled into insulation. Oh, and three other dead mice. Bravely he removed the carcasses and sent them into the wooded spaces behind our house.

He then again braved the stench, the small space, and the insulation, and removed the feces-infested insulation, sprayed a full bottle of smell-killing freshener, and replaced a lot of chewed-through wire mesh. Oh, and filled in holes with foam filler.

The house once again smells normal, except for the lingering scent of Glade carpet freshener over the spot where he found it, down below in recesses under the house.

Glenn has, once again, triumphed.

Wait until I tell you about how he took on the gas/power company...