So, Jeremy is gone again (any one surprised?) for what should be his last time to Honolulu. Yeah!!! He is finishing up the job this week, and I’ll get to have him home semi-permanently. Finally! This job has been going on for about 18mo, and I’m ready to stop living by myself. Maybe we’ll now find the time to get together and catch up with those of you I keep telling, “we’ll hang out when Jeremy gets home.” I can’t wait! It seems like ages since we’ve seen some of you.

While Jeremy is gone this final time. Sunni, our Lab mix decided we needed some midnight excitement. On Friday I was so excited to finally get to bring her in and give her a bath. Then she promptly rewarded my efforts with finding the only stash of mouse bait in the house and devouring it. I hesitated a few moments about even calling the emergency vet (e-vet). She was acting fine after all. But I soon decided that it would not look good to the rescue organization that I’m trying to adopt an Old English Sheepdog through, if my current dog croaked due to rat poisoning. So I packed her into the car and drove up to the Memorial road e-vet at 11:00pm Friday night. An hour and a half later, they got it out of her and gave her some activated charcoal (which she loved!) and sent us home with some pills to keep any poison that escaped those measures from harming her. This whole episode cost almost as much as the rescue dog will. Augh!

Well today Sunni is happy and healthy, though now a little wary of the car. Whenever we go on a walk and leave through the garage she puts on the breaks till we’re well past the car. I guess she decided that one midnight snack of charcoal was enough, Yuck!

I find this whole episode quite frustrating, though. In the past year, I’ve lost my other dog, several house plants, numerous fish, and almost Sunni with the bait intended for the mouse, but not the mouse! I thought I had gotten him several months ago when I came home from Hawaii, but he was still here and even stuck his head out from under our pantry door to say “hi.”

Then when I cleaned out the pantry, from the smell emanating from the trap, it seemed he had finally gotten desperate enough to walk into it. But I guess he had accomplices. When I went to Texas a few weeks ago one of them came out of hiding and let Jeremy know they were still here by streaking across the den floor.

Now my hope is they got to the bait before Sunni did. If not, does anyone have any ideas about how to get rid of these things? I’ve already scoured the house from top to bottom, removed any food that was within their reach, and have tried numerous traps and bait. They are driving me crazy! All the more because what was meant from them almost got Sunni instead. I bet one was hiding behind the TV holding out the bait to her, knowing that if she found it I would promptly vacuum the rest up. He was right, and now I’m on to plan D–once I figure out what it is….