Poke It With A Stick!!!!

You all know that we're "country folk" and that, where we live, sightings of raccoon, skunks and possum are not at all unusual.  We have become accustomed to field mice in the house during the winter months.  But this  winter, we have inherited a mole or two.  They're bold, much bolder than the field mice - perhaps because they can't see what they are approaching.  We have one who insists on sneaking up through the couch, and it tickles the sitting anatomy of whomever seems to be sitting there at the time.  Rod has tried several traps, and even beat it with a pillow the other night, but the mole keeps winning.  So, Tuesday night, Rod set two glue traps behind the couch - one with a chocolate covered raisin and the other with peanut butter.  Early yesterday morning, I could hear the trap moving behind the couch and was very excited to think that we had caught "Houdini".  When I emailed Rod at work to tell him, he told me to let it be and he would take care of it when he came home.

Last night Rod took the flashlight to check behind the couch.  The trap was gone, and when he found it under the couch, the raisin was gone and so was Houdini.  But as he shined the flashlight further down behind the couch, there was a large ball of fur laying at the opposite end.  He called me to ask what it was.  I had no idea.  Had the kids brought a stuffed animal that color???  Not that I remembered.  It looked like a raccoon. But in my house!!!!  I asked him to check it and he replied, "I'm not touching it unless I can poke it with a stick."  I went to the kitchen to work on dinner, and soon he came to the kitchen with the fur ball on the end of a stick.  It was not a raccoon, it was not the stuffing from the couch.  It was a fur vest that Krissy had worn here before Christmas.  Evidently she had balled it up and put in on the back of the couch, and it had fallen off behind.

I didn't blame Rod for wanting to "poke it with a stick".  I envisioned him with a raccoon hanging off the front of him like in Money Pit when Shelley Long opened the dumb waiter.  I'm sure that the phrase "Poke it with a stick" will be showing up a lot more in everyday conversation.