Oh. God. Is That What I Think It Is?

Last night, in the middle of our routine pre-bath tickle time, I thought I saw something weird coming from the air vent in our bedroom.
I did.
I did see something weird coming from the air vent in our bedroom.

--WHAT is THAT?

I stopped suddenly and stared up at the vent. Eli stopped mid-giggle and repeated after me.

--Whaht thaht?

He then lost interest and tried to pick up where we left off, but I was more interested in what I saw, which was a very long skinny tail, hanging from the air vent.

Ugh. It was a little baby rat. He was dead, but it took a minute to confirm that given his tail was quivering just slightly with the air that was coming through the vent. Did I say Ugh? Let me say it again. Ugghh.

I called in Jonathan, who was just as disgusted as I was, but far more willing to take charge of the situation.

He got the ladder, a screwdriver, some gloves, a flash light, and a trash bag.

I got the camera.

Jonathan proceeded to remove the vent cover. His vision was simply to unscrew the air vent and just kind of pour him into the trash bag. But it wasn't quite that easy. Apparently the little guy had quite the grip and it seems that he was holding on pretty tight when the rigor mortis set in.

Still, he was no match for Jonathan, who used the screwdriver to gently (well, for the most part) scrape his remains out of the vent cover while we discussed all the worst-case scenarios: This mouse is a baby. There's probably a whole family of them. I wonder where the mother is. We're going to need to get some traps. How much are humane traps? A lot. What about poison? Is that a good thing to do? Then they die and rot up there. Won't that stink? They've probably chewed through things. We're going to have to check our pipes and stuff. I wonder how long he's been dead...

However long he's been dead, he's been sitting up there in the air vent above our bed, deteriorating while warm air blows out of the heater, through the little hairs all over his body, and then lands on our faces as we sleep.

God.

Remember the hantavirus? According to the National Park Service, "The spread of the hantavirus to humans occurs most commonly by inhaling airborne dust that has been contaminated with saliva, urine, or feces from infected mice and rats."

No I am not paranoid. I like to think of myself as thorough. Thoroughly disgusted, anyway. I can't think about it. I'm just not going to think about it.

I have checked all the other vents in the house and I see no other visible signs of mice.

Jonathan is going to champion the search and removal effort in the attic. I will continue to read up on all of the horrible worst-case scenarios. We'll keep you posted...