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Unwelcome visitor; Ew, ew, ew
Topic Started: May 19 2008, 08:26 AM (640 Views)
Orlando Gibbons
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Junior Carp
In my reading I came across an interesting episode in Kafka's life which you may be able to relate to -

Kafka: letter to Felix Weltsch, mid-November 1917

Dear Felix, the first great flaw of Zurau: a night of mice, a frightening experience. I am unscathed and my hair is no whiter than yesterday, but it was the most horrifying thing in the world. For some time now I've heard them here and there (my writing is continually interrupted, you'll soon see why), every now and then at night I've been hearing a soft nibbling, once I even got out of bed, trembling, to take a look, and then it stopped at once----but this time it was an uproar. What a dreadful, mute, and noisy race. At two I was awakened by a rustling near my bed and it didn't let up from then until morning. Up the coal box, down the coal box, crossing the room diagonally, running in circles, nibbling the woodwork, whistling softly when not moving, and all the while the sensation of silence, of the clandestine labor of an oppressed proletarian race to whom the night belongs.

...After that first night, no matter to whom he was writing, Kafka spoke of mice. The subject lent itself to endless variations, all the more so when Kafka introduced, in self-defense, the presence of a cat, which raised further questions:

I can drive the mice away using the cat, but then how will I drive the cat away? Do you imagine you have nothing against mice? Naturally, you don't have anything against cannibals either, but if at night they crept out from under all the cupboards gnashing their teeth, you surely couldn't bear them any longer. Anyway, I'm now trying to harden myself, observing the field mice on my walks; they're not so bad, but my room isn't a field and sleeping isn't walking.
http://www.threerollsandapretzel.blogspot.com
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
:lol: I like that :thumb:

Frank, I might get along with your cats :biggrin:
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
:lol2: :lol2:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
My kids are horrified that we kill ANYTHING (except yellowjackets and bees ... they see no problem with killing those on sight).

Mice in the garage? "Oh no, Daddy, don't KILL them! They have a right to live!"

I have explained that their right to live ceases at my door, garage or otherwise.

And why the mice like the garage? Well, one explanation might be the fisher cat that prowls my backyard.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
They mustn't kill bees - they're one of the most important species on earth. Without bees we would have practically no crops: no fruits, no vegetables, no bread, no rice. Don't kill bees. They're fluffy.
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
The sticky traps were listed as "humane" The idea was you'd catch the mouse, he'd stick, and then you take it outside and dump water on it, which released the glue and the mouse. Yeah, right. I also had a roommate who was much less squeamish than I.

I have a trap baited (peanut butter) and we went to my mum's for a couple hours.

No mouse.

Maybe he's sleeping and he'll come out tonight?

Liam wants him gone, too. He suggested we should tell the mouse that it's warm outside and he should go out to play. But he's ok with the idea of the trap.

It's so weird - I've suspected I've had a mouse for a couple of weeks. I thought I saw one. But I put peanut butter on a plate and sprinkled flour around it (no where was open to get traps when I saw it) and left it overnight. No paw prints. No disturbed peanut butter. Odd. So I thought I might be imagining things.

I've had a couple other "Thought I saw something" moments, but figured that maybe I was just being paranoid. No other signs of him. I pulled a garbage bag out of the bin last week just before bed so I could take it out in the morning. No holes. Nothing.

Weird.

The first time I saw him and this time today, he came from my hall closet across the hall into the kitchen. Now I'm wondering if I should pull everything out of the closet to make sure he doesn't have a home there.

Not sure I can handle that, though.
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
sarah_blueparrot
May 19 2008, 02:02 PM
They mustn't kill bees - they're one of the most important species on earth. Without bees we would have practically no crops: no fruits, no vegetables, no bread, no rice. Don't kill bees. They're fluffy.

They don't kill bees. The German Shepherd does.

When he was a puppy, he inadvertently got into a beehive somehow, and was chased down and stung lots of times. Since then, he has been at war with all flying insects. He goes crazy whenever he sees a bee or a yellowjacket ... he just chases and bites them.

I keep thinking they must sting the inside of his mouth, but he doesn't seem to care.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
Frank_W
May 19 2008, 12:44 PM
Dol, you could always get a few cats and let them slink around in the house. Then, if the cats became bothersome, after your rodent problem was taken care of, you could get dogs that would chase the cats out of there. Then, when the dogs became too much, you could get elephants that would chase away the dogs. (Elephants are no good for trampling mice. They are too skeered.) Then, when the elephants became too much of a bother, you could get lions to chase out the elephants. Once the elephants were gone, you could get a pack of mongeese to stalk and chase the lions out. They take care of snakes, too. Once the mongeese became too much bother, you could get some badgers to chase out the mongeese. Or, at that point, you could just cry, "BADGERS!? We don't NEED no steenking BADGERS!!!!"

Or, you could just get some good hiking boots.


You're welcome. :sombrero:

"She swallowed the cow to catch the dog to catch the cat to catch the bird to catch the spider that wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her..."
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
:lol2:

It was, in part, ripped off from a children's book that Julia used to have... It was called, "The King, The Mice, & And The Cheese."

:lol2:

(Well, except for the Cheech & Chong bit...) :lol2: Also, mongeeses. mongooses? Mongs?

Posted Image
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
I keep thinking of ways to kill a rat in a toilet without messing up the toilet....probably a gig, or two teaspoon of gas and torch 'im...
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Frank_W
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Jolly
May 19 2008, 04:35 PM
I keep thinking of ways to kill a rat in a toilet without messing up the toilet....probably a gig, or two teaspoon of gas and torch 'im...

Oh god... The stench of that would be worse than anything in the world... :hair: :puke: :lol2:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
Couldn't you just drown it?
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
:sing: There`s a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
There`s a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna go?
I`m gonna fix that rat thats what i`m gonna do,
I`m gonna fix that rat.
:sing:
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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Klaus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Caption contest:

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Trifonov Fleisher Klaus Sokolov Zimmerman
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Klaus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Dol, maybe mice in Canada are different, but over here they don't like peanut butter but fat bacon! Maybe you should give this a try!
Trifonov Fleisher Klaus Sokolov Zimmerman
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
This morning, around 2 a.m., Winston brought in a baby rabbit. I could hear it squealing, and still half-asleep, hoped he would either kill it or else take it outside. After a half hour, I finally got up and went into the living room, where he had cornered it next to the door. I reached down and picked it up by the scruff of the neck, took it outside, and let it go. :cursing: :no:

Posted Image
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
:( Poor baby rabbit. Was it alright?
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
I think so... It was minus a few tufts of its hide, and there was a little blood on the floor, but pretty superficial wounds, as far as I could tell.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
:( This is one of the reasons why I don't like cats. Evil barstards.
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
No they aren't. A cat can't help the fact that it's a cat, anymore than a rabbit can help the fact that it's prey. It's just nature. Nature knows neither evil nor good. It doesn't make such value judgments.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
No no no - cats are evil. It's all in the eyes.
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
:lol2: In that case, so am I. :lol2:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
:lol:
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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Jane D'Oh
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Fulla-Carp
Baby rabbits screaming is a horrible noise. Our neighbors had a good rabbit catcher. I hate to say it, but all the baby rabbits that we chased the cat away from and released later died of shock. :(

My mum once caught a mouse's nose in one of those snap traps. There was a trail of blood leading outside. As far as I know he never came back...

When we had a mouse in the apartment we finally cornered him in a closet, duct taped the gap at the bottom of the door and a couple of days later we took him out with the trash. The cat was pretty pissed at us for spoiling her fun.

Pfft.
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
Jane D'Oh
May 20 2008, 08:22 AM
Baby rabbits screaming is a horrible noise.

Isn't it, though? :weeping:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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