adventures with millie

The other night I let Millie out one last time before bed. While waiting for her to come back in, I finished getting ready for bed and found my book. I was pretty exhausted by this point and was just waiting for her to be done so I could head off into sleepland. She finally scratched on the door and came trotting inside. I shut off the lights and locked the door.

Then, I turned around. BIG MISTAKE! It seems that our little Miss Millie brought in a special bedtime snack. A dead bird. Yup. Right there on my living room floor. UGH!

Well, since I have no Mr Dark & Handsome to take care of a problem like this, I rolled up my sleeves (figuratively of course) and dealt with the problem. I went in the back and got a glove (there ain't NO way I was touching that thing without a thick barrier between us) and came back to the living room, ready to be the strong and independent woman that I am and get rid of this thing.

(the whole time i was getting the glove and getting myself prepped for the extraction i kept telling millie how gross this situation was and how unimpressed i was. i think she got the hint. at least, i'm pretty sure thats what a smiling head tilt by a dog means)

So, I came into the living room and prepared myself to pick it up. I went in for the grab and immediately dropped the thing. And then I did the whole "i'm a girl and this is gross and i really really don't want to be doing this right now" dance and shrieked a little. After I finished that little ritual I manned (womaned?) up , picked it up, opened the door and chucked it into the yard.

The whole time I was doing this Millie kept looking at me like I was crazy and wondering what in the world I was doing with her new chew toy. After I was done and had again locked the door and shut off the light, she went back over to where she dropped it and kept looking around, wondering where the bird had wandered off to. Unfortunately for her, the answer did not become clear.

I was thoroughly grossed out for quite awhile, but it did bring back memories of my cats. You see, when I first moved here I went the cat route. I figured they would be easier to handle than a dog (and they were. except for that whole climb all over anything and everything thing.) and I didn't feel nearly as bad leaving them home for hours and hours (or days and days).

Toby and Sadie also liked a little snack here and there and there were a couple of times I encountered situations very similar to this one previously mentioned. However, the kitties liked their snacks a little more, ahem, mobile.

One night I kept hearing this noise under my bedstand. I kept thinking it was a mouse and was thoroughly disgusted with my cat's mousing abilities. In the morning I went to have a little look-see and was thoroughly startled by the thing that came flapping out at me. It ended up in my bathroom where I trapped it in the tub before grabbing it and throwing it out the window (my bedroom window does not have a screen on it).

Fast forward to another beautiful Montana day. I had the aforementioned window open to let in the wonderful spring day, which my cats loved because it enabled them to move in and out of the house at will. Well, Sadie decided that she wanted to have some friends over for dinner (next time they might want to check whats on the menu!). I was in the other room and heard a thud. When I went to investigate I found a bird flying around the bathroom.

Oh, the joys of pets!