Sadie, Sulking In Her Cave…, originally uploaded by wax rhapsodic.

that's what i asked myself when i walked in my room last evening when i got a whiff of the air.

i chalked it up to the no-a/c-on-yet and the fact that i have a window fan blowing in air from the outside; there must be something stinky out there, i figured.

i turned my ceiling fan on and laid down to nap.

a nap turned into a 5-hour mini-coma. when i woke up, the smell was better but it was still there. on top of that, i realized it was a smell i should be able to place but couldn't.

i started trying to figure out what it could be.

when i first got wailey, he had to live in the house for two weeks until i was able to get the enclosure built outside. he ate from a plate under my bed, placed on newspaper. he pooped twice but both times i found it and cleaned it up thoroughly.

i started wondering if maybe i missed something. maybe some lettuce/fruit mixture had been shoved off the plate into a place i couldn't see. maybe i missed a poop. it'd be strange it was smelling worse over time, but who knows..

so, i got on my knees and lifted the bedskirt. there, on the newspaper, was a small pile of something. "aha! mystery solved!" i thought. i pulled the newspaper out to see what the heck it was, expecting a pile of lettuce or something along those lines.

instead, i got a rodent. a long-dead rodent. in the process of being tended to by a squirmy gaggle of nature's undertaker, the baby fly. if you know what i mean.

i honestly wanted to cry. it was one of those run-out-of-the-room-and-never-come-back moments. unfortunately, it being 3 a.m., i figured catching a flight to rio would pose a challenge. also, i have no passport. so i had to face the problem: close the newspaper while trying to not look, run it outside, set it next to the compost heap, and hope to god balu would know what to do with it today.

so, yeah, i love the cats. i mean, the carcasses of lizards scattered across the patio outside is bad enough. but at least i see those, or at least know they're there when i step on them (ugh!). but bringing a dead mammal into my house and stashing it somewhere i never look? totally. not. cool. i'd prefer the underside of my bed never again becomes an insect nursery/cafe. agggggh.

¶ 11:05 AM