There have been two occasions in my life when my sleep has been interrupted by extremely unwelcome visitors. The first occasion was when I was a teenage schoolgirl, living with my family up in the Western Isles.
We lived almost smack bang in the middle of the island, in an old croft house. The house had electricity, peat fires, an old Rayburn and water was pumped up from a well for all things other than drinking or cooking. Safe water had to be brought in from town in some very large containers which my father filled when he was at work at RAF Stornoway.
Living conditions were fairly basic but I loved it there. We had our dog and several cats, plus I was allowed to help out with the animals on the croft next door. (School life was another matter!)
One night I was tucked up, fast asleep in my little sloping-roofed bedroom, when I felt something heavy on my feet. Half asleep, I thought it was one of the cats come for a visit. Then I remembered that they had all gone out for a night of hunting...I sat up, put on my bedside light just in time to see a large rat jump off the bed and scoot away.
No one got a great deal of sleep that night. The rat was eventually caught and the cats all received a strongly worded lecture about failing in their duty.
Last night I had another nocturnal visitor. I was woken by something dropping onto my bare shoulder. Half asleep, I initially thought it was my hair, then realised I haven't had long hair for quite a while now. Quick as a flash I put on the light and saw a spider in bed with me. Eeeek!
I wasn't quick enough to catch him, but I did send him off with a few dark words.
To think that only yesterday I had rescued a spider which was trapped in the bath. I may have to reconsider that policy.
No doubt everyone has similar tales to tell, I would love to hear some.
Can't say I have had any thing like that happen though my wife is scared of spiders. A guy I was on an outward bound course with had a horse stick its head through the tent opening during the night on Dartmoor scaring the life out of him
ReplyDeleteI can imagine! Better finding that it was a horse than the Hound of the Baskervilles, though!
DeleteYes I have a tale of a baby rat, brought in by cats presumably that got INSIDE MY PILLOWCASE after jumping down off my bedisde bookcase!!
ReplyDeleteCats! At least it was contained, Sue. Did you manage to get back to sleep?
DeleteMy mother woke one night to find a mouse running across her neck.
ReplyDeleteEeek! A rude awakening. I hope it was soon caught.
DeleteI'm very afraid of mice, luckily nothing like that has happened to me..
ReplyDeleteWell done for your courage!
It's just that my husband often worked away, so I had to deal with all manner of crises and pretend to be brave!
DeleteWhen first married and living in a rented garage converted to an apartment in southern Georgia, USA, I woke up when a "palmetto bug" otherwise known as a cock roach fell from the window ledge above our headboard and landed on my face. The creatures are called palmetto bugs by genteel southern ladies who would never DARE say they had cock roaches in their house.
ReplyDeleteNo! Horrible, horrible, even with a genteel name! That would really give me a fit of the vapours and a sleepless night. However, I love the information about the genteel southern ladies so, thank you, Ana.
DeleteI don't mind spiders. You can brush those off and hopefully wont see them again. But a rat! Thats a worry if you don't see it again. Thank goodness yours was caught eventually.
ReplyDeleteI thought your midnight visitor was going to be a ghost. You don't want one of those either in the house. Or out.
Ha! I have had a few spooky encounters, Linda, but never in this house. Slugs, snails, black beetles, ants, mice, woodlice, and all manner of insects come and go, but no ghosts.
DeleteI do remember once at an earlier house of yours I was sleeping in Dad's study - with the hound Pipsqueak alongside me. Work rang me at about 03:00hrs, waking both me and hound, who huffed and puffed about the disturbance... After the call I turned the light off and went to tickle Pipsqueak's head by way of apology, only to discover that the little minx had very quickly and very quietly turned about one hundred and eighty degrees. In the dark I ended up tickling doggy bottom. I swear I heard that dog laugh. The problem then of course was a binary choice - try to sleep with that hand out of the covers and hope that I didn't dream about biting my nails or something such, or further disturbance of getting up and going to the bathroom to wash the hand thoroughly there and then.
ReplyDeleteThat was Pip! So, tell me, which one won out? Laziness or cleanliness?
DeleteI often have unwelcome "gifts" from my cats, usually mice brought in and then let loose to run around. During the rabbit season which has just started I get a lot of rabbits. The record for one cat one Spring was 11 brought in by Thomas and they were just the ones I saw after I started counting. My cats are prolific hunters. I am so used to it it doesn't bother me. I also get lots of ants in the house but also they don't bother me, I deal with them. I don't think I have ever lived anywhere in the countryside where ants haven't shared the house with me right back to mum's house as a child.
ReplyDeleteAnt traps seem to work well in the house, kettles of boiling water outside, just as I remember my mother doing when I was very young. I guess Thomas takes his work very seriously, which is great, but I am not sure that I could be quite as relaxed about it as you, Rachel. I am hoping that Sparky's baby-rabbit-hunting days are past, she was forever bringing them home to eat on the patio. She loved everything apart from the head, whereas with mice she ate all but a few giblets.
DeleteLying on my front one night many moons ago, in a different house...felt something on one leg, no problems, but soon after I felt something across my other leg...it had eight legs...I was out of that bed very quickly. Hubby had to deal with the offending creature...out of the window if I remember correctly!
ReplyDeleteHusbands do have their uses!
DeleteWhen I was maybe two, I woke terrified. There was a hair brush at the end of my bed. My father took off all the covers to show me the empty sheets, gave me a drink and I went back to bed.
ReplyDeleteYour father to the rescue. Nicely done.
DeleteDon't think I could have crawled back in bed after seeing what I assume you felt was a fairly large spider.
ReplyDeleteOnce I had checked all the bedding, sheer exhaustion took over, Marcia.
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