Mystery

Sunday morning, I opened the garage door so I could clean out the car a bit before we loaded up for church. Immediately I noticed that the laundry basket was on the ground on its side. This is unusual. If I had left it on the ground, it should be right side up. But I was pretty certain I had left it on the dryer. Did the motion of the dryer knock it over? This has never happened before, so that would be strange. But I suppose if it was close enough to the edge, it would be possible.

As I approach the car, I notice one of the bags of cat food is sticking out from underneath the passenger side of the car. The two bags we have are stored on the driver side of the car. So again, this is a strange sight. I stand there staring, trying to come up with the scenario.

Background: The garage had been open for a large part of Saturday as we were disassembling Christmas. Jim finally pulled the car in around 8pm-ish.

So why was this bag there? Had Jim driven over it when he parked the car? So I look closer and the bag does not appear to be smooshed. However I do see it is open and there is food spilled out. The bag is torn. Huh.

I walk to the other side of the car to see the state of the second bag. Now I see a basketball - normally in a basket on a shelf in front of the car - is laying on the ground near the driver door.

I'm gonna need some backup.

Something weird is going on here.

I call for Jim and point out my findings.

He investigates.

He finds many more things have been knocked over: propane canisters, paint cans and supplies, miscellaneous garden stuff. And then, there is the poop. Someone was in our garage.

Background: Jim had left the garage open after parking the car because I had been doing laundry and he thought I would be going back out there. Since I didn't need to, it was a while before I went out to shut off the light and close the door.

During Jim's investigation, I had assumed it was an opossum. We have had previous encounters with opossums. Upon finding the poo, Jim thought it was a cat because we have several strays in the neighborhood. Later he found paw prints that have us suspecting a raccoon. We figure a raccoon is more rambunctious to knock things over than an opossum would be.

Then this morning...dunh, dunh, dunh!

I take our comforter outside to wash it and really notice how dirty the washer and dryer are with foot prints from whatever was running around in there. I turn on the water for the washer and open the lid...and...this ugly little creature is staring at me! It was an OPOSSUM!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!

He had been in there since Saturday night!!!

I slam the lid and run to go get Jim, but realize the water is still filling the washer. So I run back and turn it off. Run to the house again to get Jim. My poor cats are freaked out by my behavior and their tails are all puffed.

I cannot believe how much opossums gross me out. I did not want to get anywhere near it. We decided to call animal control to get rid of him. It was several hours before they showed up and it was just horrible to keep thinking about that vermin being in there.

After he was gone, Jim cleaned out the couple pieces of poo and we ran the washer without anything in it to try to clean it out. Then the water overflowed and poured down our driveway. Even when we got the spin cycle to empty the basin, the thing still smelled like pee. Whether or not the machine was broken, Jim and I could not stomach the thought of washing our clothes in opossum pee. So we bought a new washer and dryer today. Why a new dryer? The old one was probably not going to live too much longer anyway and why not get a matching set now.

UGH! Such adventures today. Nothing has gone as we planned (including Josh's schedule). Today was the prime example of flexibility. But at least our weekend mystery has been solved.