We began last week with cash flow problems. Getting paid in one part of the world and getting the money to a bank account in another is something we've gotten used to dealing with while living here. But on November 1, something at our bank changed with respect to international wire transfers (either a law or an internal bank rule, not sure which). When John tried to make his regularly monthly transfer, he was told "It might take us a few weeks to sort through the new rules." His reply was something along the lines of "No. That's not going to work."
Next, do you remember a few posts ago when I alluded to how it wasn't such a good idea to rent a car and leave ours here for the week? Well, here's why. We live next door to a forest. I'm not kidding, there is a twelve-foot hedge along the back drive, and behind it is a forest. If you look up our address on Google maps, you will see a giant estate, complete with its own chateau and private lake. It belongs to some upper echelon Belgian citizen, and is home to all sorts of critters.
The wildlife here is mysterious and keeps to itself. In Minnesota, you can tell a lot about the wildlife by what you see dead along the side of the road -- a lot of squirrels, maybe a deer and even an occasional skunk. That doesn't happen as much here. For one, there aren't as many animals (I think they were all hunted to the point of near extinction a long, long time ago). For another, there are a lot of fences and tall hedges and walls that keep the wildlife fenced into a certain area, cutting down on the roadkill issue quite nicely.
One animal we've heard about, but have never seen, is a type of wild weasel/ferret thing that lives in the woods. We've heard about it because it supposedly likes to climb into a car engine and eat the wires. That always sounded like the sort of thing that happens "to someone else," so we filed it away under the category: "stuff-not-to-worry-about." So we didn't think twice about leaving our car in our back driveway for a week. We should have.
By Tuesday last week, the electric went out in our car and it wouldn't accelerate. A quick peek under the hood revealed that something decided to have quite a feast at our expense. We had to have the car towed to the dealer Tuesday morning. On Tuesday night, John left for a quick trip to London.
By Wednesday morning, I felt like I could get a job as a delivery service dispatcher. I sat in my kitchen, and with my laptop and phone managed to coordinate all of the comings and goings of my children. I managed to get everyone, not just to and from school, but also to most of their extracurricular activities.
Mid-morning, my neighbor rang the bell and asked if I needed a ride to the grocery store, which I happily accepted. Later, with a cup of coffee, I caught up on this blog and waited for AJ to come home (the others were off to friends' houses before their afternoon activities). That's when the mouse walked into the kitchen as if asking me to make him lunch. My scream sent him scurrying away, somewhere into the living room. I settled down enough to get back to the blog, and that's when I looked out the window to see the large rat amble down the sidewalk as if he were out for a midday stroll. Obviously under siege, I ran back to the neighbor's house and he promised to take me to the hardware store for traps as soon as AJ got home.
I bought a little wire cage-trap, with a spring-trapdoor and two sides. The trap lets you catch two mice at once, without killing them. And while this is the more humane option, I bought it because I didn't want to deal with seeing carnage on top of everything else. Plus, my neighbor promised to help me set them free if I caught anything.
That afternoon, AJ and I locked ourselves in the kitchen and strained our ears to see if we could hear the trap in the other room, and kept our eyes watching out the front for any more of the larger vermin. Our wait was in vain, and our trap sat empty throughout that night. The next morning, I sent the kids off to school with a neighbor, and went down to start a load of laundry. My light startled a mouse who scrambled into a dark corner. Excited, I got my trap and put it in the corner. An hour later I had two mice. By Friday morning, I had two more. I named them Eeny, Meeny, Miney and Moe and they have been resettled at an internment camp somewhere in the woods near the creek behind the rugby field. Thanks to my neighbor.
By Friday night, the traps were still empty, and we had our car back. My neighbor's cat needed shelter from the rain (did I mention the rain didn't stop once last week?) so I happily let him sit in my kitchen to wait for his people to get home. And I was up to the double, if not triple digits, in counting my many blessings. One of which was the borrowed cat. I also added "ferrel cats" to my list of "reasons I'm excited to move back to St. Paul." Sometimes, the bad stuff has to happen so we can see how good we have it. Friends and neighbors step forward to help. You get through it and feel glad it's all over. Peace had settled on our house and all was right with the world.
For about ten minutes.
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