Not a creature was stirring, not even a...

[Aerlys]

...RAT!

Indeed, the vermin hadn't stirred for quite some time. No one knows exactly when it met its demise, only that it found a comfy place to spend its final moments.

In the middle of our Christmas decorations.

Not the box with the dishes. That would have been too uncomfortable and easy to disinfect. No, it chose the one with the Christmas stockings, shower curtain, Santa hats, tablecloths, and hand-seen decorations.

Alas, all we have left to remember our departed guest are nibbled linens and a cloying stench that only Oscar the Grouch could appreciate.

**Sigh** Happy Advent!

[revanne]

Well that will teach me to catch up on the forum while enjoying my breakfast . Urghhhh

"Eau de rat mort" will not catch on as the latest Christmas perfume, methinks.

[Aerlys]

How about Merry Carrion? Has a nice ring to it, no?

[revanne]

 

[Laurna]

Ratatouille,
Ok, not quite.
I'm thinking it is time to teach your girls how to do a blanket stitch with yarn. Get some green, red and or white craft felt, use an old stocking for the shape you want, cut a matching pair(front and back) for each child. and then have the girls ( boys too if they want) use a blanket stitch to sew the front and back together on the sides.  Cut out names from the left over felt and glue them on. It would make a great family party to create all new stockings for Santa to fill on Christmas day.

[DesertRose]

Oh, yuk, Aerlys.  I hope you can get everything cleaned up in time to enjoy your decorations.

[Jerusha]

We lost a box of the handmade Christmas decorations my sons made in school to a family of mice.  It must have been a family - surely a single mouse could not have caused such thorough destruction!

I think a few nice scented spruce candles may be in your future to counter the rat "perfume."

[Evie]

Dratted rat!     Oh well, maybe as Laurna suggests, making homemade Christmas decor could be a family bonding experience this year. Are at least some of the items washable?  If they can at least get wet and then be allowed to air dry, there is a spray on product I've used to get rid of bad odors that works wonderfully. It's called Odo-ban, IIRC. I once had to use it on a shipment of action figure clothing and plastic accessories I got from a man who evidently smoked like a chimney. The fabric items got hand washed in a mixture of water and Odo-ban and rinsed until the water started running clear rather than brown from cigarette smoke residue, then I tossed them in the washing machine. Plastic items required an overnight soak and then repeated spritzing and scrubbing under running water until the water ran clear. But eventually I got the stink out of everything. Odo-ban doesn't just cover up odors, it somehow breaks them up on the molecular level, so you don't end up with everything smelling like a weird combo of dead rat and eucalyptus. (Or orange, or lavender, depending on which of their products you use, but the eucalyptus version came premixed in a spray bottle, so that's what I've got.)

[Elkhound]

I don't have any problem with mice or rats because of Rupert.

[Aerlys]

Washed what we could, pitched a bunch of it, and still airing out the beautiful decorations DH's grandmother made.

Would love to have a cat, Elkhound, but when we bought our house, it had a LOT of pet damage. It literally took years for our human noses to no longer get a whiff of cat when it was damp. I'm not convinced that a feline nose wouldn't still smell it, though.

Loved the stocking idea, Laurna, if we weren't so swamped as it is. Instead, we managed to salve some of them, and went bargain hunting at Goodwill.

At least it didn't get into the tree ornaments! And it could be worse. Our friends' house was badly smoke damaged a couple weeks ago, and they still can't get back into their house. And their daughter is getting married on the 29th!

[Curlytop]

Would love to have a cat, Elkhound, but when we bought our house, it had a LOT of pet damage. It literally took years for our human noses to no longer get a whiff of cat when it was damp. I'm not convinced that a feline nose wouldn't still smell it, though.

Don't worry. The nose of a rat or mouse definitely would smell it, and be put off.

[Aerlys]

Would love to have a cat, Elkhound, but when we bought our house, it had a LOT of pet damage. It literally took years for our human noses to no longer get a whiff of cat when it was damp. I'm not convinced that a feline nose wouldn't still smell it, though.

Don't worry. The nose of a rat or mouse definitely would smell it, and be put off.

If only that were true. When we bought our house, it was horribly pet damaged (which is why we got it at about 30% below market value). The smell of cat pee just about knocked you over when entering the house. And what came scurrying out from under the dishwasher and ran circles by my feet but a cheeky little mouse, obviously trying to frighten away the new residents. Didn't work, of course (i'm not afraid of mice). So, for some reason the smell of cat kept away humans, but not the mice.

Murphy loves me...