Unsolved Mystery

 So as Jo alluded to earlier, we have an unexpected roommate/critter running around the house that we're renting. It's driving me nuts. It will eat any food we forget out on the counter tops at night. I feel like Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) from Caddyshack trying to catch this thing---it's eaten more fruit than I have in the past 2 weeks. I really want to catch it badly. Not so much to kill it, more to find out what it is.

Each morning we rise and jump out of bed like little kids on Christmas morning to go "check the traps." Never any luck, occasionally another clue---but the mystery remains.

Here is the list of failed plans:

1) Mouse trap. This thing shed a mouse trap with ease---clearly larger than a mouse.

2)Sticky trap + mouse trap. Again, we brought a knife to a gunfight. However, the sticky traps gave us our most promising lead to date. Left behind in the stickiness was short gray/white fur. This helped us rule out any flying animals (we briefly considered bats.)

3) Sticky trap in the bottom of a cooler positioned so that it would have to jump onto the sticky trap to get at the food. Failure again, no attempt made to get the fruit. This lead me to believe that it is a fairly smart animal (i.e. squirrel, less likely a rat.)

4) Rat trap. Escaped again. At this point we slightly worried for our safety given its apparent size and intelligence. We began wedging a towel under our bedroom door at night---- just in case.

5) Varmint Trap. TBA, no luck yet. I checked out a large cage style trap on base from the vet clinic. As of yet it hasn't worked nor has any bait been disturbed. Maybe the run-in w/ the rat trap scared this thing off?? I really hope not. We've come too far to not get closure at this point. It can eat all the fruit in our house just so long as I get some answers.

6) Cat. Our landlord's mom lives 3 houses down and has offered the services of Mittens for a night or two. We haven't taken her up on it yet mostly b/c I don't want to see the Discovery Channel played out all over the living room carpet some morning before work. If we get desperate we'll eventually call Mittens out of the bullpen.

Here are the Vegas odds at this point:

Squirrel......2 to 1 odds. Clearly the favorite given the fur, the ability to get up to the counter, its apparent intelligence and the rat trap escape.

Rat........1 in 4 odds. Can a rat make its way up onto a counter top w/o assistance from a chair? Also, you would have to believe that a rat trap would catch a rat, right?

Possum-    1 in 7 odds, the Dark Horse. According to Judy (Jo's mom) they love fruit and are stealthy.

Raccoon.......1 in 40 odds. It hasn't made a go for the trash yet and we haven't heard anything, but the fur is a match.

Please call us at 701-641-1162 w/ any leads (and yes, you may remain anonymous).....

Since I haven't been able to start work, I thought I might take a spin on the old bloggin' site. Here is a little bit of what Josh and I have been up to......

1. We twiddle our thumbs.....yes Josh and I both have been held up by the credentialing process for work. The difference, Josh gets to go to work and I occupy space at the house, on base or at the county library. One more place you could find me = the base gas station where I heat up my frozen lean cuisine (classy)

2. We play foosball....and then play more foosball. Apparently Josh used to play foosball pretty competitively back in the day. Josh warned me prior to participating in our first match "I'm kinda of good at this game. No seriously, I'm really good."

3. People watch. At times we have almost had to glue our eyelids shut to keep from staring. Our favorite act......... a middle age woman squatting against a downtown business across from the police station mid-day urinating. Just doesn't get any better than that! Well, I guess the guy walking in the cross walk, on saturday morning, with his boa constrictor around his neck was pretty good too!

4. Another past time....hunting. Yes, we are on a big time hunt. For what you ask!? It seems that we are co-habitating with a large animal that likes fruit. To the date, we have not caught our furry friend.

The original trapping set-up. From this trapping we successfully caught some fur on the sticky mouse pad......the critter is still on the loose.

A super-sized rat trap was set last night........apparently it is smarter than both Josh and myself.

5. REI...finally we have an REI within reach. Saurday Josh and I spent about an hour and a half curbside waiting for the used gear sale to open at REI.

The results......

a. 3 pairs of hiking boots for Jo

b. sunglasses

c. 2 hiking long sleeve, uv protection, wickingshirts

d. hiking pants

e. hiking shorts

f. 2 dog collars......no, we do not have a dog.................YET

g. Toe shoes.....yes, I bought a pair of those goofy shoes

h. miner's light/head lamp

i. etc etc.

The damage......we purchased just under $900 of equipment and clothing for $175. It is unbelievable, this stuff is brand spanking new.

6. Hiking in Auburn.....need I say more!?

So, my favorite part of this day....good company and GREAT conversation.....

Josh: "Ouch, it hurts my chest when I run."

Jo: "Why?"

Josh: "Yesterday before I left the gym, I didn't feel like I got my pecks. I went to this new machine to work my pecks and REALLY GAVE 'EM HELL" (Of course Josh said this in an extremely serious face, until he saw that I was bent over and couldn't breath from laughing so hard)