Ants In The Pantry

We were invaded this weekend. Bunches and bunches of those nasty little creatures got into our pantry. Thankfully we had not gone to the store yet so only 2 items were ruined. A box of some sort of health cereal, and sadly, 3/4 of a container of NesQuik (Nestle's powder to make chocolate milk).

I cleaned these bandits out and even sprayed along the bottom of the pantry with Raid. It was hard work taking everything out. You know, what comes out has to go back in. I cleaned the shelves because who knows where their feet had been. I can handle spiders and snakes a whole lot better than ants. I go by the principal of where this is just even one ant, a million of it's road dogs are near by.

Well I was happy now. I told the wife my discovery and how I had vanquished the host from hell. I assured her I sprayed and cleaned up all excess spray so the pets would not get harmed. It was time to rest and tell "Little Rolling Thunder" to next time put the lid back on right and tight on the NesQuik. I love that stuff.

A little while later (you know where this is going), a hunger pain hits. Time to see what's happening in the pantry.

I open the door and what do I see!!!!!! Those little demons from hell are back!!! And they brought at least a legion with them!!!! Now they are on all the shelves!!!!!

This time though there was nothing they could get into. What a relief. Still, 3 shelves of stuff had to come out, little demons mopped up, shelves cleaned, stuff put back. This time I waited and noticed they were coming out of the wall through a crack in the door trim.

It was time to die for the spawns of hades. I sprayed the Raid all around the pantry edges (of course wiping up the over spray) and everywhere else those little beasts could come from in the kitchen. I even went outside and found a fire ant hill to spray - for good measure.

The ants have not been back. The new groceries appear to be safe. Thank goodness this dark crawling army did not get into my new box of Lucky Charms. That would have been worse than losing the NesQuik.

More Dog Stories....From Friends

Story #1: Several years ago when my (Raquey's) youngest son, Brad, was visiting us, we caught a wild mouse that was loose in our house and probably, against our better judgment, we kept him. We named him Ralph. He got loose one day and we were unable to chase him down. Later, we were sitting at the table eating dinner and our big, black German Shepherd, Bo (this was before Baby) saw Ralph scampering across the kitchen floor. Like a bolt of lightning Bo went after Ralph, caught him and was standing there, Ralph dangling from his mouth by his tail. We hollered, Bo dropped the mouse and Ralph went back into hiding. We found Ralph later and, lo and behold, Ralph had a crimp in his tail from where Bo had caught him.

Story #2: Where we are staying is an old dog named Rodeo. Last year when we were here we met Rodeo. He's a mild-mannered, well-mannered dog that follows his owners around and stops for petting from the folks staying at our RV campground. This year when we returned, he seemed a little older, a little slower and we were told that he had gone deaf. Well, the other evening we saw our local fox take off across the property and you wouldn't have known that Rodeo was old, slow or deaf. He took off after that fox like a bullet. Probably had to sleep for hours after that to recover, but he had the adrenaline when he needed it.

BY Dick and Raquey

Story # 3: I will give you another story to convey when people can't understand the instincts of dogs and devise a list of things they would do to fix the natural result of dog vs. mouse.

I was a teenager in a house my father built just outside of Chicago. It was spring and I was helping to remove two bales of straw that Dad placed against the sewer drain pipe last fall. The purpose of the straw was to protect the above ground pipe from freezing through the winter. Our backyard was open lawn except for a wheelbarrow five or six feet from the drainpipe, and my mom and dad who were standing 30 feet from the site of the upcoming event.

Shadow was one of three Chinese Pug dogs that my parents owned and I grew up with. I don't know what the Pug is famous for but I don't think it is a mouser with a cute flat nose. Shadow was getting old and showed his age. He was meandering around my parents as he often did with nothing on his mind, I'm sure. I lifted the top straw bale into the wheelbarrow and then reached for the second, laying on the grass. A nest of mice, at least ten, were startled when their tenement rose straight up into the air. They took off in every direction, like spokes on half a wheel. In an instant Shadow was on the move. He had the instincts of a cow pony herding doggies at a rodeo competition. One by one he stopped the mice. He shook the first, dropped him and moved like a flash to the next, repeating the routine. I do not remember one mouse escaping. It was all over in maybe 15 seconds. When Shadow decided it was over, he moved back over the field, he stopped at every casualty, inspected it and confidently moved on. His memory was marvelous because he traced his earlier battle precisely in the same order.

The Pug was domesticated over 3500 years ago. During that time, the breed has become known as a strong companion to human families and a brave protector. Shadow's instincts came to life instantaneously. This makes me confident that human instinct is in all of us and we should not work too hard to suppress it. We need instead to recognize when those instincts are needed.

Mom, Dad and I were all proud of the little black legionnaire. Dad broke the silence with, "I've always wanted a hunting dog. How do you think he'd do during pheasant season?"

BY Phil K.

A Dog A Mouse

My wife and I have started walking our dog at night after "Little Rolling Thunder" gets home from gym. She is showering and eating dinner anyway so it's a good time to get a little exercise. What does this have to do with a mouse you ask???

Well, last night we were on our 1 mile walk. Wife, I, and the dog. We were near the end of the walk and on a sidewalk bordering the main street. All of a sudden the dog stopped and her head shot straight down to the grass. I looked down just in time to see what I believe was either a very small mouse or a baby mouse.

Lo and behold, the dog scooped the mouse up in her mouth!!!! Holy crap I thought. Before I could do anything else, she turned and looked at my wife. All my poor wife saw was a mouse tail hanging out of the dog's mouth! Before my wife could even yell, the tail disappeared. That stupid dog had swallowed the mouse whole in one gulp!!!!! She did not even chew it.

Needless to say we both were grossed out to the max. I asked my wife if the dog really did in fact swallow that poor mouse in one gulp and she stated yes. We could not believe it!!!!

When we got home, the dog was put in her crate for the night. I was adamant that if she was going to blow out her barrel, she was not going to do it on our carpet. The dog made it through the night without a problem.

You may be asking why we did not attempt to stop the dog. Let me tell you, I was amazed at how fast the entire incident occurred. The dog is like a vacuum cleaner. We are still wondering if the dumb animal even knew what she ate. We are thankful the dog is current on all her shots.

Just something to think about when you are walking your dog in the evening. You never know if there is small snack just waiting to be had for the dog.