The rest of the story

Ok, I still get the creeps when I think about this. Yesterday morning A informed T that the bathroom sink was plugged. She said it had been draining slowly for a couple days and now it was completely plugged. T took a plunger to it but it didn't help at all. He knew he'd have to take it apart later but he had to get to work.

I worked all day, went to praise team practice and then to the ball field. J's team lost this one. Anyway, T worked all day, got J, they ate and did homework and got to the ball field. So at 9 o'clock last night T had to take the bathroom sink apart. He said somebody had to have stuffed something down there. J kept saying, "Not me!" and A was house sitting so she wasn't there. He unscrewed something and let the water drain out and said it was plugged further down than the usual hair that gets captured in the plug.

He finally got the water drained and pulled the "P" trap down and we could see all this hair. I jokingly said, "It's a rat." and J came running so he could see. I told him it wasn't really a rat and to go get ready for bed. Then T pulled the pipe off the rest of the way and said, "I think this really is a rat," at the same time I noticed it's little legs and ran away screaming/squealing, "It's a rat! It's so gross! Yuck! Gross! Ewww! It really is a rat!!! I have to call A!!"

J came flying out of his room to see it and to laugh at me. Then the smell hit him and he pinched his nose and went back in his room. I grabbed the phone and called A and then T came through with the dead rat in a pan and said, "Take a picture........heave." I yelled at him to get it out of the house and he gagged several more times. I was giving A a play by play and she said, "I know dad's gagging. I can hear him."

Of course we texted everybody and my brother wanted pics. T told him that about the time he told me to take a pic was when the gagging started. My brother said he was a sissy and he wanted a pic. So this morning T went and looked where he had thrown the thing last night and managed to find it. In the light of day it was determined to be a squirrel and here's the pic.

The only thing we can figure is that it's been so dry here that the squirrel went looking for water and crawled up the pipes by the lagoon and couldn't get turned around. So it had to keep going until it ended up in the septic tank. The easiest way out of there was the pipe into the house and it randomly picked the kids' bathroom sink as it's way out. It was a "crappy" way to go but I'm having a hard time conjuring up much sympathy for it. Why we didn't hear it or smell it, I'm not sure. Once the water drained off we could smell it.

T washed his hands multiple times and scrubbed his nails. Then he cut his nails and scrubbed them again. He gets grossed out thinking about pulling that thing out of the drain. He was relieved to figure out that it was a squirrel as he feels much better about having touched a dead squirrel than a dead rat. J seems unfazed by it and seems to think it was quite funny. He requested a few times this morning for me to get back up on the stool and scream because he found that "hellious". I refused so he got up on it and imitated me until he was laughing too hard to stay up there. Weird kid.

I was told by J's ESL teacher about a live rat she found in her toilet one day. She said they looked at each other and she closed the lid and flushed. Ewww. I'd rather have a dead squirrel in the sink than a live rat in the toilet. And the moral of that story is look before you sit.

I really hope we don't have any more teenage mutant "linja" (J's word for ninja) squirrels in our drains. RIP Mr. Squirrel. I hope you were the one who has been chewing on the carport.