Monday, December 10, 2007

Two field mice and part of a squirrel

So this last weekend, while I was away in NYC having a blast, I decided it was time to send my car to get its 30K mile check-up. It's a great little car (NOTHING like my former mode of transportation - seriously, don't get me started!), but there were just a few little things I wanted looked at, 1. Squealing brakes, 2. low air-pressure when blowers were on head and feet, 3. a little rattling sound that had just started, but would come and go.

So, no big, right? Yeah. Nothing major. So I went to NY, had a fabulous time (future entry) and came back to pick up my car on Sunday night. We had previously arranged that I would drive the rental back to the dealership, drop the keys in the drop-box and pick up my car w/ my spare key. The invoice would be in my glovebox. So I looked at it and was duly sickened by the amount of money charged by labor, etc., but what really caught my eye was the charge for "Removal of dead rodent from air filter". WHAT?!!?!! I had a dead what in my car?!

Yeah. So the next morning, I call my mechanic and the first words out of his mouth were, "Two field mice and part of a squirrel. I thought about keeping them for you, but I decided against it." Gee, thanks. What a gentleman. So that would explain the low air-pressure from the blowers in my car. Ick. But the question remains...how the heck did they get up in there? And excuse me, but part of a squirrel -PART of a squirrel was found in my air filter?! How the crud did part of ANYTHING crawl up there? My only possible explanation are the cats that hang out in our parking lot...think it's possible that one of them was just being kind and bringing me a gift? There is one that I've made friends with. Perhaps he thought this was the best way to show me he cared. But how did he get in there? According to my mechanic, that's not a very likely scenario.

My only other explanation is that two mobster field mice had been hired to bump off a neighborhood squirrel-bookie and were looking for places to hide him. They must have figured that hiding him in pieces would throw off suspicion. Sadly, they underestimated the effort it would take to pull him up into the air filter of my car and when they got there, they decided to take a short nap... Bad decision, mousies. RIP.


Not so cute when thought of in that way, are they? Hey, no sympathy here! They made my car into a sarcophagus!!

So, ever find anything "out of the ordinary" in your car before? What about your house, etc.? Do tell.