FEAR

Good evening all! Let us explore the darker side of the animal world today. A couple of weeks ago I made my nightly trip outside to the deck to feed our cats. As I scooped the cat food into their bowels, something buzzed passed my head and crashed into the door. I turned to see what it was, because it didn't sound like the usual June bug, and to my horror a large roach was zipping about. Something it me in the head then and to add to my growing fear it was ANOTHER roach. Now at this point panic has set in as I contemplate dealing with two of the little beasts. But a worse terror awaited me. It was not two roaches, but a swarm. Yes my dear friends, a SWARM of the flying devils. And to add to the mess, they were all buzzing about and climbing on the door. There was no escape. I tossed the cat food in the scoop into the air and made a crash dive off the deck into the grass screaming and batting my arms about my face. I saw my dad through the kitchen window and began banging on it to try to get his attention. It was one of those rare times that he had decided to do the dishes, so he couldn't hear me over the water and the TV going and the neighbor's dogs' barking. I was on the verge of hysterics. The back door slipped open a crack and one of the beastly little things crept in. I still screamed for my dad to no avail. So I grabbed the cat food container and ran around the front of the house to the front door. The porch light had already been turned out, so I couldn't see if the swarm had migrated with me. The June bugs flying around did not help my nerves. I rang the doorbell continuously, whimpering and trying not to cry. My dad came to the door and told me I would probably want to go around to the back because there was a roach on the front door. All I could do was scream, and I do mean scream, NO, LET ME IN! So he killed that one and let me in. I tried breathlessly to tell him what had happened and I got the typical, "There's nothing to be afraid of, they're just bugs" lecture. I had to run upstairs to have my sister look me over, just to be sure none had gotten on me and then I burst into hysteric tears and shuddering. I think I was in slight shock. I'd always been told that roaches didn't really fly, but that they kind of fell from a high perch and glided down. I say to you now that that is a lie!! Those wretched things flew up off of the ground.
But now let us go to another incident of yesterday. Yet another creepy crawler of the animal world. My dad had a ball python. My mother, sister and I strongly protested the pet, but obviously we didn't get our way. Now if you know anything about snakes you know they eat rodents and maybe lizards. Ours eats cute little mice. My father rarely feeds the poor things to his snake. Normally my sister is present to do the deed. She throws the mouse in while I distract the snake. Distraction is easy. You get a paper bag, or even better the box the last mouse came out of, and hold it up against the glass away from where the mouse is going in. With two people it's relatively easy. But my sister is now at school and now I am alone and yesterday was time to feed the snake. I begged my dad to do it. He doesn't mind it when the snake strikes at him or watching the poor, cute, defenseless mouse getting eaten. He doesn't understand why we're so afraid of it. I always tell him that it's in the bible. We're supposed to be afraid cuz God said we would be. It's right there in chapter 3 of Genesis! Anyway, my dad works nights and wouldn't get up. He was half asleep and not very coherent. We're finishing up remodeling( is years since it began) so our library of books is stacked up in our office where the snake is. His cage is on top of our gun safe, that's as tall as I am. I require a chair to reach the cage properly. So not only did I have to feed the snake, I also had an obstacle course to go through to do it. Once I got the chair where I wanted it, I go a paper bag and held it at one end of the cage. We have a basket of rocks sitting on the lid, because once the snake did escape so we had to make the lid too heavy for him to move. I slid that to the side I didn't intend to lift, the side my sister usually uses, which he was eying. The moment I got up on the chair he struck the side of the glass, which made me jump and nearly fall off the chair. "Alright you nasty little thing, I'm feeding you so be nice!" I told him. He just watched me and every move I made. That's unnerving, you know. I tried to get him to watch the paper bag, but he wanted to watch the box I held. So I found that last box in the office trash can and put it at the other side of the cage and used the paper grocery bad to cover the glass between my self and him. But by this time the mouse had scampered out of the box, which scared the heck outta me. I mean they're cute, but I don't want to hold it. And it's less traumatic if it stays in the box until you toss him in using the box. Also you run less of a chance of getting bit by a hungry snake if there's a box in the way. So the mouse plopped onto my foot. More jumping and nearly falling. I considered just letting him run free, but that would be a wasted $1.62 and a mouse loose in the house. So I grabbed it by the tail, praying it wouldn't bite me and went to put him in. There the snake was, watching me with yellow eyes. I pulled the rodent down behind me and jiggled the decoy box. He went to inspect the movement and I moved as fast as I possibly could. I pulled the lid up a crack. Just as I went to drop the victim in the snake caught on to the game and was coming for me. I tried to drop the mouse in and the stupid thing grabbed the side sticking half in and half out of the cage. I could just see the snake trying to get it and both of them coming out onto me. I shoved the mouse over the side just as the snake came at us. I dropped to a squat on the chair not wanting to see the end. A squeak let me know the snake was occupied and I made sure the lid was secure before leaving the office shaking all over. I buried my self in The Legacy of the Drow collector's edition. It's something like 1070 pages and I'm at 180 approximately. I think it's time to go get back into it. I had to let my eyes rest for a bit. I've been reading for most of the day. I don't know why the computer makes them feel better. I'll go for now and read about Drizzt's adventures for a while.