Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Today I have a true crime mystery for you. It's a tale of greed that led to a hunt for the thief.

Let me set the scene. Our garage, like many others, is a place where things that don't have any other place to go, get stored. We have a work bench with tools on racks above it. We have several metal shelves along the back wall where assorted items are stashed. There is a pile of boxes, flattened and tied together, a pile of Rob's old sketch pads, little pots of paint to touch up walls in various rooms, a stack of old towels for drying dogs or polishing the car. You get the picture. I also have an area where I groom the dogs and where I keep their food.

There is an old bookcase where I keep grooming items, and on the top of the case is an open plastic bin where I store dog biscuits so that I can grab them easily as treats, but the dogs can't reach them to help themselves.

On Saturday morning as I was heading for the area where the dog food is kept, I noticed a screwdriver on the floor. It seemed odd because they're usually in their little rack over the workbench, but I assumed that Rob had dropped it and not noticed.

On Sunday morning I discovered an artist's paintbrush on the floor in almost the same place. The brushed are kept in the drawer of the grooming table and Rob hasn't been painting lately, so after feeding the dogs I asked him if he'd been using the brush. He hadn't.

Monday night at last call I gave the dogs their yogurt and sent them outside. While they were out I filled the water bowl and got their bedtime biscuits. At that time I made a mental note that there were only three biscuits and some crumbs in the container so I'd need to fill it first thing in the morning.

Tuesday morning at six I let everyone into the back yard. When they come back in they go back to sleep for a couple hours before eating so I went to get biscuits for them but the container was empty, totally empty and looked as if it had been wiped clean. No biscuits, no crumbs. I went upstairs and asked Rob if he had taken the last biscuits out of the container and he didn't know what I was talking about. I told him there had been three biscuits and crumbs left but now the container was empty. We assumed that we had a mouse.

Last night, Tuesday, when I put the dogs to bed, there were ten pounds of milkbone biscuits in the container and a sticky trap just above the container. This morning at six when I went downstairs with the dogs, I went into the garage first. I thought I might find a mouse in the trap on the floor and didn't want the dogs to get it. There was no mouse. The container was empty except for the trap, which was also empty. The creature had taken ten pounds of dog biscuits and there wasn't a crumb left.

I ran back up and got Rob. I was afraid there was a snake living in the garage. What mouse could eat ten pounds of dog biscuits in one night? We sent the dogs to the yard, moved the car out and started emptying the shelves. Behind the boxes were piles of dog biscuits. Stuck between pages of the sketch books were dog biscuits, between paint cans were dog biscuits. We found just about ten pounds of dog biscuits but no mouse and no droppings. How many trips across the room must he have made carrying his prizes.
We think a snake would have just eaten all the biscuits, not hidden them, but the fact that no droppings were seen has us wondering just what is living in the garage and raiding the supplies. Had it not gotten so greedy it could possibly have stolen a few biscuits each night and not been discovered but now the hunt is on for the little criminal.

As much as we hate snap traps, we set several of them. There are three in the shelves where we found his stash and one set on the cover of the biscuit container. Yes, it now has a cover. I'm sending Rob to the garage ahead of me tomorrow morning. I'm not sure I want to see what may be waiting there.
  So wish us luck, we can't afford his ten pound of biscuits a day habit, so he has to go.

8 comments:

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

Well, you know those pesky squirrels could be the culprits too. We hope you find something but not sure what it will be. Maybe you need to set up a Nanny cam:)

Woos - Ciara and Lightning

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Very mysterious.... We don't like mouse traps, they never seem to kill the mouse, only maim. Then SHE feels guilty. Luckily, we dogs keep the house mouse free.

Cannot believe the ten pounds gone. Maybe there was a party.

The Daily Pip said...

I say possum. In my experience, they are little hoarders. Can't wait to hear how this story ends.

Molly the Airedale said...

Gotta be the evil good for nothing squirrels!

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

Tammy said...

I would vote for a squirrel or a raccoon if there was a big enough entry place for it. Anytime anything is moved around or scattered it's the raccoons. The 'possums are nasty messy eaters, but they generally just come and eat and leave. The raccoons have to rearrange everything. However the hiding stuff away sounds more like something a squirrel would do! Or perhaps a large rat...

If you lived closer I could loan you a trap!

Tammy

Ruby said...

HOLY CRAP!!!! Ten pounds???? Even I can't eat that much at one sitting!!!! ☺ (okays, maybe I could....I would like to find out!)
Wows, this is exciting! Okays, maybe not so much for your peeps....and if you were me, the mighty King of Terriers, you would want to be out there and get that little SOB!!!! If you want me to come overs and stake out the place, I will be more than happy to!!!! Just don't forgets to leave the ten pounds of biscuits.....
Kisses,
Ruby ♥

Lapdog Creations said...

That's a lot of work to move 10 pounds in one night! Damn...

Jo's World said...

I've read your whole month of July, and feel so badly for Fudge having a stroke. It sounds like he is getting better though and with his determination I hope he heals 100%.

But the 10 lbs of treats sound like you have an infestation of rats. I can't think of their names but another person on the list had them in her barn and they just ate or hid everything, made nests every where they could. I'm gonna see if I can't find that blog and get the info back to you.

Stella is doing better with storms and fireworks, its a blessing because she nearly drove me nutz at one time over it. I hope Sebastian is very much better and stays well. I hope things get better for you too.

We have almost all the work done here and I hope to get back to blogging soon.

I think of you often Sister and hope one day we can sit down with a sleeve of crackers and some good limburger cheese!

Cheers and Hugs,
Jo

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