Cody’s blog

I stayed up late last night—didn’t go to bed until after 11 pm, then read until midnight (Vol 21 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist—the Jonouchi vs Marik duel, sniff), and still had a hard time getting to sleep. Got up at 8 am feeling fine. I guess I’m getting over my infection and not needing as much rest, although I’m still congested and my ear is still plugged up, ick.

Just before I went to bed last night, I went to the kitties’ room and found that the ants had regrouped for their second all-out attack on the kitties’ food bowl. Sigh. Had to get out the sponge and Mr Clean and spend another twenty minutes wiping up ants and ant trails, and tossing out the ant-infested food and washing food and water bowls. While I was at it, I finally discovered the dead squirrel I knew had to be in the room somewhere—I’d seen droppings on the chest of drawers, then a few days later caught whiffs of dead things, but hadn’t taken the time to search the room for the remains. But the ant trail led me right to it, between the cat carrier and the chest of drawers. I figured if a mouse or squirrel or something got in there, Jerry would kill it—she’s a good hunter. But she doesn’t eat her prey, so body disposal is up to me.

Fortunately, this morning, the house remains ant-free, more or less. I’ve always got a stray ant or two wandering around, but I don’t care about that. I only get violent when they trail, especially if they get into the cats’ food, because the cats won’t eat out of ant-infested bowls.

I’ve thought about killing insects in relation to my attempts to follow Buddhist teachings. I wish there were a way to keep the insects out without killing them. I try not to use insecticides (except for Sevin5, which is not as harmful as Raid or things like that), and to only kill them when they become a problem, like when they get into the cats’ food or in my bed or on me. Otherwise, I try to maintain a live and let live attitude with all bugs and creatures around me. That’s the best balance I can manage.

On the other hand, it doesn’t bother me a bit when my cats kill small creatures. That’s their nature. I don’t try to stop them. (I just don’t want them bringing their prey into the house to chase and kill! I just barely managed to slam the door in Spot’s face this morning, as he was trotting inside with a squirrel in his mouth. Yesterday, he snuck in with a little bird, which he released to go flying into the front room. Fortunately, it was already weakened enough that I could put on my leather glove and snatch it up and toss it back outside.)

I need to head into town early today to do a couple of errands before work: pick up some dry cat food for the kitties, bottled water for me, and stop at the post office. So I’d probably better start getting ready.

This is my favorite of the many and various kinds of insects and bugs that visit me in my house. It’s a little gray beetle, about an inch long, with a hard, ridged shell. The shell is so hard, they’re nearly impossible to squish, so they’re understandably not very worried about being chased—they’re very slow-moving and apparently quite harmless. I see one in the house every once in a while. These, I don’t bother, I just let them go on their way.