Snake in the Box

Entry 15: We told her to clean up her mess

September 28, 2006

Dear Diary,

Abel here, former animal shelter resident seven years ago, to relate a short but meaningful incident yesterday. Since moving to this tiny and very old new home, loyal owner has failed to reconcile the eight or so boxes and packages of leftover items, thus leaving a big mess in the carport. Not only does this look unsightly from the street, but it also blocks the way to a nice shady resting area on the cool concrete driveway.

However, we believe that a rather shocking incident has inadvertently caused loyal owner to rethink the mess we have to deal with each day. While she was sorting through a pile of old clothes, bottles of lamp oil, containers of photographs, etc., a curious creature slithered into the depths of the mass of boxes.

Happily enough, this caused loyal owner to drag everything away from the storage area. Unhappily, loyal owner continued to search for the long black snake until she had completely covered the carport floor with an explosion of unpacked boxes, containers, and old newspapers.

The moral to this story, and it is a good moral, is that loyal owner has learned a valuable lesson, and she has started to sort through the year-old pile of unknown items now. This will result in the emptying of the carport floor now, and thus we will gain a much-needed extra resting area, although Miss Ashley continues to enjoy her dirt pile to dig in and sleep in anyway.

Stay tuned to read of the progress of loyal owner's rehabilitation and renewed effort at organizing and disposing this weekend.

Sincerely grateful to the snake who inspired it all,

Abel