She who slays dragons

Okay, not exactly dragons...but at midnight in a dark house, it seemed almost as daunting as a dragon!

When we moved in two years ago, we were not happy to find quite a number of cockroaches living it up in the house. Why there were so many, we are not quite sure; could be because the house had been vacant for several months or because no one had ever taken the time to seal up cracks and crevices or because he previous owners were careless and trashy (my personal choice) or some combination of all three. It did not really matter to us why they were there or from where they had come, we just wanted them gone. Especially me. I huddled in the corner of the kitchen and cried the night we found three huge cockroaches peeking out from under the countertop KitchenAid stand mixer. Even Spenser the cat was afraid of those mothers.

It took months of pest control services (indoors and out), diligent cleaning, new siding, and the sealing of cracks and crevices to finally get rid of our unwanted freeloading guests. For the most part, on the rare occasions now when we see a cockroach, it is either dead or on its way to being dead - a much better situation than the cockroach rodeo we had when we moved in.

But that all changed last night. My nerves were on edge anyway, since it was J's first night out of town for a week-long business trip. Although it makes me sound like a ninny, I admit that I don't sleep as well when he is gone and that I freak out at every odd sound. Spenser was parked at the top of the stairs, staring at the wall and meowing. I kept shushing him and making him move away so he would not wake up A. But the silly cat kept returning to the same spot until I thought that the squirrels had found their way back into the house (that's a pest story for another time). I even stood at the top of the stairs in the dark for about five minutes, trying to listen for any squirrel-like sounds. No luck.

I finally had enough of Spenser's behavior and decided to get him moving along. I flipped on the light at the top of the stairs in the upstairs hall and then saw the object of Spenser's attention: at the top of the wall was a cockroach, about an inch and a half long (body length only - legs and antennas made it even longer). It was located just above where I had stood for my five minute listen session and it was Very. Much. Alive.

Great. I armed myself with the rod from the towel bar I had broken earlier in the evening (again, a story for another time) and one of J's shoes - no way was I going to use one of MY shoes! I poked at the cockroach with the rod, trying to stay at an angle from the beast should it fall straight down. It took several jabs before it fell to the floor and ran straight at Spenser. So much for my fearless burly cat - he turned tail, literally, and ran down the stairs. I chased the cockroach and pounded it with J's shoes until it was Very. Much. Dead.

Sometimes a queen must do the work of a knight. But did I mention that the pest control service will be here on Friday for our quarterly treatment and will be spraying inside?