R.O.U.S.

So last night, or rather this morning, at 1:00 am when Scott finally came to bed, I was kind of half asleep, so I wasn't really aware of what was going on, but I knew I was hearing some funny sound outside. To my brain it sounded like the wind was blowing dirt and little pebbles and crap against our window, which made perfect sense with how windy it was yesterday. Well Scott came to bed and said, "What is that sound?" I mumbled, "It's just the wind" thinking, oh great, he's gonna think someone's trying to break in. The next thing I know, the lamp is all the way on, blinding me, and he is pulling the blinds back from the window. All of a sudden he says, "It's a rat!" Well that instantly got my attention, and suddenly I could tell that it wasn't the sound of things blowing against the window, it was the sound of tiny little claws/teeth scratching the glass, trying to get in!! So I said, "It's probably just a gopher, my dad has had gopher problems." But secretly I was getting creeped out and sure it was a rat. Scott couldn't tell if there was a long tail or not, but he thought there was one. I told him to go outside and kill it, and he was like, "What am I gonna do, step on it?" I suggested a shovel. He layed down and said, it can't get in, it's huge. Great. That makes me feel so much better. So for a couple minutes I layed there, wide awake, listening to the clawing on the glass, picturing a giant, rabid "rodent of unusual size" with beady little red eyes, getting in through the window and gnawing at my throat. Even if I wasn't thinking this and wanted to go to sleep, I wouldn't have been able to with all the noise. So I snatched up my blanket and pillow and went to the couch. About 5 minutes later Scott followed and curled up on the living room floor. And that is where we both "tried" to sleep last night, without much success. When we got up, Scott looked out the window and said it was gone. So I went to see, and sure enough, there was a big gopher hole in the second to bottom step in the windowsill. (They're the shallow, cute windowsills that you can plant flowers in.) I yelled to Scott to say it was only a gopher, and suddenly this little furry head with big teeth popped out of the hole, looked around, grabbed a leaf, and went back in. I screamed, "There it is! Ooohhh, it's CUUUTE!!!!" It poked it's head out a few more times, and Scott got a look at him, but Jack wouldn't focus long enough to catch it out of the hole, nor did he care to. Now there is a nasty, vicious, trap in the hole. My dad already had one in the garage, since he gets them every year. There are tons of them in the church field at the end of our circle. I say, run gopher, run! Stay with all your little friends at the church where no one cares, and we won't have to skewer you. (I think he has evaded the trap. The hole is now all covered with a pile of dirt, and he wouldn't have been able to do that without getting past the trap. I bet he's a tricky little fella!)