I love my neighbours! They are the best! Always there to help me in a cooking conundrum with recipe advice, cups of flour, packets of rice or a bag of potatoes! They have sat vigil with me whilst my children have been very sick and they have picked up my kids from school when I couldn't. They are just the best!!!!
At the moment, My neighbour is going through a tough time. She has one child in Hospital, her Husband is with him and she hasn't slept for days....So I gave her a call tonight just to check up on her and see how things were.
What started out as an ordinary conversation quickly escalated into a series of squeals and then full blown hysteria! It seems the family cat had very dutifully brought home a little present. Now my neighbour, bless her heart, is terrified of mice! Interestingly, the technical term for this phobia is Musophobia or Muriphobia! So, not being able to get any sense out of her on the phone and knowing her chief rescuer was away I offered to come and catch the errant rodent!
It was hilarious!
My 4 children and I marched across the road sensibly armed with a lunchbox (cos that's what you do....and I needed to catch the poor wee thing somehow) only to find the offending animal had already been apprehended by a tea towel bearing teenager. I already suspected this because of the random shrieking that was drifting up the driveway! (It's a teenager thing!!!) Unperturbed and armed with my trusty lunch box I entered the house only to find it wasn't a mouse, but a baby bat!!!
Then I realised that my neighbour's 4 children were accounted for but she was conspicuously absent!!!! It was at that moment our eyes locked.....She was outside having run for the closest exit leaving her 4 children shut inside!!!! I caught sight of her through the glass door, eyes wide, face flushed, mouth open & in shock! Apparently in her haste to escape the great vicious mouse-like beast...she had completely forgotten to save her children, and was horrified! Her children on the other hand were totally amused....it was funny!
Eventually the poor stunned critter was released onto a citrus tree from the back verandah, which again illicited much shrieking and squealing from the tea towel bearing teenager....And all of us had a good laugh.
The Bible says to love your neighbour as you love yourself... Well I took that very seriously tonight...because I know that there will come a time when some large hairy legged arachnid or slithery slimy serpent is going to scoot across my floor and my chief rescuer is going to be away. And I know with absolute certainty that my neighbour will do what any other sensible mother will do...
She'll send the tea-towel bearing teenager!!!!
But only if her chief rescuer is not at home!
I just hope, when that creepy crawly hightails it across the floor and I am in the grip of the flight reflex....that I remember my children!!!! :)
Thank you Lord for the blessing of wonderful neighbours, for tea towel bearing teenage rescuers and for belly laughs!!! :)
2 comments:
Apparently if you do actually have mice...The tip is: sprinkle some baking soda. Another tip is to soak a cotton ball in peppermint oil (not extract) and put around where you have mice coming in.
How interesting...how does one know if it works?
Is it like elephant repellant?
Which is obviously working cos there are no elephants around!!! :)
My husband likes to tell me about the time he found something interesting in the back yard and eagerly ran to show his Mother, holding it up right in front of her face before she knew what was happening....a 30cm long worm! He found out in an instant that she was terrified of worms!!!! Bless his heart. I didn't run the risk of that happening to me....I have already informed my children that I really don't like snakes or spiders! I might mention at this point that certain older girls thought that was an invitation to hide plastic VERY REAL looking snakes and spiders in odd spots, like on the sun visor in the car, or in my bed urgh!!!! Thankfully they have stopped that for the moment....
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