I awoke to the sounds of Bo whimpering in his kennel this morning. Obviously, despite the beautiful sunrise this morning he was letting me know that I had once again slept past 7:00am. Pets get accustomed to the routine you instill in them and they will not let you waver from it...a lot like kids I guess.
On our morning run we passed by the old man's house. There was an unfamiliar vehicle there. They had the front and back doors open to the house, I'm assuming to air out the house.
I was more than curious as I passed by. I wanted to see what the inside of the house looked like..what kind of furniture the old man had, what kind of decor he had on his walls., if it were messy or clean, etc.
Instead what I got as I passed by was the smell of death. As the wind blew through the house I caught more than one whiff of death mixed with a hint of stale cigarette smoke. It made me slightly nauseous.
It reminded me of the smell of a dead rat. I know that smell well. When we lived in Alabama we lived in a house where the rats would die in the walls of our house and we had to endure the smell of their decomposing bodies for months before they finally were nothing but flesh and bones. It was sickening because there was nothing you could do to mask the smell and getting them out of the walls was next to impossible.
I don't know why I had assumed the smell of a dead human would be any different. The smell of death is the smell of death. I was disappointed that the old man smelled like a dead rat. Humans think they are so superior. Life is life and death is death I suppose. It all smells the same. Dust in the wind.
Why am I so intrigued with the old mans death? Maybe his death makes me aware of my own mortality.
Anyway, this morning Summer and I went and picked up her friend to come hang out for the day. I didn't really see them much until they got hungry. Pizza was for lunch.
I spent the day browsing on my Ipad, made a cheesecake and some salsa, and worked on finishing up a quilt I have been working on.
The weather was perfect so the girls walked with me to take Bo for an afternoon walk. We ventured a bit into the greenbelt but couldn't get too far. Last summer there was invasion of these tall, stalk like weeds that took over the greenbelt and although they are dead now they are still there and hard to maneuver through without a sickle. We were also a little deterred when we saw some very large cat- like paw prints. Although mountain lions are rare in these parts there have been stories of them being spotted in our area. I'm not taking any chances especially when I see very large cat paw prints in the dirt!!
It was a good day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
We had bobcats in residence a few years ago. I never saw them, but did notice some really big paw prints around the dumpster. I started carrying a flashlight!
ReplyDeleteSome smells are unmistakeable and stay with you. My first clinical rotation as a nursing student was the nursing home. One of the patients assigned to my care had cervical cancer. Very pungent odor, even in her breath. Ne chemo for that back then, and no hospice care. She was there to die. I have smelled it since and had the smell confirmed. A good nose is hard to escape!