James is the BEST

My husband is the best ever. 

One night a couple of weeks ago, we heard some strange noises coming from the laundry room.  It sounded like an animal had been trapped in there.  I did what every good pregnant lady would do, retreated to the couch, with my legs pulled up (cause that would for sure protect me!) and told James not to let "it" get out of the laundry room. 

James armed himself with the swiffer and a rubber mallet, and headed into the laundry room.  He found nothing.  But he did hear some little scratching noises coming from the dryer vent.  We are rebels, and don't have a cover on the vent.  We assumed that a bird had flown into the vent and was stuck.  James ran the dryer for a bit, while I did all kinds of silly google searches on how to get birds out of dryer vents, etc.  We didn't hear any more noises, and assumed that the heat from the dryer encouraged the bird to fly up, up, and away. 

The next morning the dryer wouldn't start.  James banged on it a few times, and then it worked.  It's very important for our dryer to work since it's how we "iron" clothes these days.  It's also how we dry clothes.  That's maybe a little bit more important than our method of ironing. 

That night when James came home he took apart the dryer, to take a good look inside to see if somehow this bird had become lodged in the dryer.  (Thank you YouTube for the how-to video!)  He found nothing.  So we figured that this bird had made it's escape and the dryer not turning on that morning was just a random fluke. 

We were wrong.  On many accounts. 

The next day, I put a load of wet clothes in the dryer.  I was greeted by the smell of death.  I then did the logical thing, and texted James, informing him of the stank coming from the dryer. 

That night, James once again disassembled the dryer.  This time he also removed the drum (which really is a 2 person job....and more challenging than necessary when the second person is close to 100 months pregnant). 

And then he found it.  It, being a dead mouse (most likely a pack rat).  EWWWWW.  One pair of kitchen tongs (which were disposed of, EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!) and a whole lot of bleach later, the stank was gone as was the offending creature. 

James is my hero. 

After the clean up was complete and the dryer was back in one piece, we moved on to our next freak out session.  Hanta Virus.  Thankfully I'm a master at google searches.  Heat kills the virus, and dryers get plenty hot.  Bleach also kills it.  And that was used.  And, there haven't been any cases of hanta virus in Pima county that this google master could find.  And, if it was indeed a pack rat, I don't believe they are typically carriers of the virus. 

We believe this rat may have been a distant relative to one that Walter terrorized a few months back.  Over the summer there was a rat or mouse that had some sort of injury stuck in our backyard.  Walter did what every good beagle would do.  He howled at it.  He howled at it so much he could not howl properly without his poor tired voice cracking for days.  Our "hunting" dog lost his voice because he howled at a rat for hours on end.  Thankfully he's not much of a hunter, and therefore left this mouse alone (kinda....I suppose he did howl at it forever).  He's just a loudmouth.  Maybe as payback for the sheer terror that hours of howling caused (while we were gone....sorry neighbors!!) his rat friend decided to lodge himself in the dryer.  Unfortunately for him, it didn't turn out well.