Where's The Cat When You Need Him???

Baino's recent shed excavations brought to mind an adventure from my not-too-distant past...

While in graduate school, I worked as an assistant to various faculty. This involved sharing a cubicalled, windowless room with other students and toiling over whatever research and other tasks were at hand.

Allowed to bring food and other necessities in, our office always exuded the faint odor of microwave popcorn or drive thru delicacies. Though the trash bins were always emptied at end of day by custodial staff, we found it necessary to spray air freshener so often that one of us dubbed the place the Febreze suite.

One day, while sorting through shelving and boxes, I noted a particularly foul smell and following it, decided to shift my desk for a peek behind. This action dislodged a still empty waste paper basket hidden beneath the desk. Lined in plastic, the bin, which appeared empty, soon proved unamenable to our customary airborne remedy as well as tried and nearly true Lysol spray.

Flipping the bin on its side loosened its liner completely, revealing the malodorous and very skeletal remains of a rodent. Caught between the bottom of the liner and the outside basket, it had apparently gone unnoticed for sometime, surprising my colleagues and I so much that one of us screamed.

The one and only time I have ever smelled a rat...