It's Enough To Turn Me Vegetarian

I noticed a smell in the house the last day or two that was just faintly, well, smelly. This usually means that the dogs need bathed desperately and the kennels cleaned. Washing their bedding is always a nice touch, too. Mental note, do that when I get a free minute.

And then Micah's BSC came to the house today for a 2 hour visit. He wanted a toy in the basement and needed me to get it down off the refrigerator down there. (He has a love/hate relationship with the singing, dancing reindeer. He'll play with it for a while but insists it be put up on the fridge in the basement when he's done with it. One can't take the chance of it coming to life anywhere near him.) When I opened the basement door I noticed a definite dead animal smell. Yuck. I know for a fact that we don't have mice because the kids leave popcorn and other various foods down there on occasion and it's never bothered.

The further down the steps I went the worse it got. I headed toward the fridge for the much-needed toy. And then I saw it. The large pool of red under the refrigerator. And the smell was powerful and sickening. I grabbed the toy and ran. I tried blocking the image out of my mind, but it lurked there all afternoon taunting me with the fact that it wouldn't go away unless I took care of it.

When Sam came home I broke down. It takes a lot to reduce me to tears, but losing an entire freezer full of meat on top of the ugly mess it created was more than I could take in my current over-stressed condition. He graciously volunteered to clean it up for me. Bless his heart, this is the man that cannot clean up dog vomit without adding to it.

In the end neither of us could do it. My dad had to come take care of the mess for us. How on earth does one repay someone for THAT?! And let me tell you that the horrid, nasty, dead-animal smell I experienced was absolutely nothing compared to what was released when that freezer door was opened. One cannot describe the incredible stench. If you've ever experienced that, please accept my condolences. If you haven't, trust me when I say that it's enough to turn you into a vegetarian.

I'm just so, so glad that it was discovered before we left for vacation. I cannot imagine what the house would smell like after a week of that stench festering in the freezer. I probably would have had to condemn the house and move.