CRITTER TRAP TRIPPED

I woke up this morning with the need to be alone on a backroad somewhere.

As much as I enjoy the little fellowship I have been attending these past Sundays, there are times – just like Yeshua – when I need to separate myself from people and society; and just spend some time alone, giving my thoughts, spirit, and body a thorough rest … just extending the Shabbat mood for another day.

And that’s okay.

The next thought that popped into my thoughts, was ‘Cougar’.

Cougar is a small town: I don’t even think the total population (aside from tourists) comes to 300 souls that live there, year’round.

(https://www.visitmtsthelens.com/communities/cougar-washington/)

Bob worked there one year; and when the girls and I spent a week, now an then, with him there, I fell in love with the area – and then after the kids left home, Bob and I made yearly daytrips back when the osprey’s were nesting there … that relaxing drive stretched out to a 6-hour-daytrip that included a view of Mt. Adams and a drive through the Gorge area if we took a right turn at the Ranger Station: or Mt. St. Helens, and a drive home through Randle and Jackson Highway, if we took a turn to the left.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been in that neck of the woods; 2½ years, to be exact. The last time I had visited Cougar, I was with Bob and our 4-year-old grandson … mere weeks before that horrible afternoon of cook and scott egomania, that landed Bob in ER fighting for his life.

(https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2018/07/extended-cougar-roadtrip.html).

We had made an earlier – and much shorter – trip with Azariah, in 2017, too.

(https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2017/09/sasquatch-lava-valley-daytrip.html)

However, I was not planning to do a 6-hour-thing this morning: I just planned to drive through the countryside and have lunch at the Cougar Bar & Grill.

Cougar from Heron Pointe; via I-5 & Lewis River Road - 1 hr. 5 mins.

Cougar Bar & Grill menu.

The Lone Fir is nice, but it’s more of a yuppie hangout – and the last time I was there was with Bob; I didn’t want to cry today.

I just wanted a nice relaxing country drive.

There would be a brief bit of time spent on the I-5, but not enough to be anxious about; in practically no time at all, I’d be off the freeway and cruising happily along forested and cliff-hugging backroads.

I gave myself a mental pep talk and shook doubts off 😉

I had made this drive myself many times while Bob was working there – I should know it by heart: even with the occasional widow brain fog that creeps in when I go to places where Bob and I used to frequent together. I miss him so much and it hurts my heart he is no longer riding with me.

I am slowly – but surely – getting past that missingness paralysis.

By the time I got dressed, made a quick cup of coffee, and checked the critter trap … it had started drizzling.

And a surprise awaited me.

The critter trap was tripped; an animal was bagged.

I hoped the fella would come soon to collect it.

I decided to postpone the Cougar daytrip: the rain, and the need for the trap removal put a kibosh on my plans ☹

Opossums do not dig: they climb, and they take over burrows other animals have dug for themselves. So, whatever was digging to get under my house, is not this trapped critter.

As soon as I saw the tripped trap had caught a prowler, I called the fella who dropped off the trap to come collect it – I could let the opossum go myself, but I remember that Bob was attacked on our back porch in Cathlamet, by one of these things that was eating the cat food.

Bob was a big guy: 6’3”.

The opossum then was hungry, and felt trapped.

This opossum, this morning … has eaten the bait, and found itself trapped: it’s scared.

I am not getting anywhere close to it.

I did see 2 dead racoons on the highway the other day, close to Heron Pointe; so, I am hoping there will be no more digging under my house after the trap is gone.

Hours went by.

No one had come by to collect the trap.

No one had called me back.

I decided to give ‘All Pest Control’ another jingle.

And found that I had been waiting hours for a pickup that would not have happened at all … had I not called again.

Unbelievable! 2:25 PM

I was justifiably annoyed, but I hadn’t wasted the day waiting: while I was waiting … I had plotted a course of plans, mapped a route, and charted my Cougar adventure for later this week (if Mother Nature cuts me a break, weatherwise).

Driving the freeway will be a major step for me; it will only be 30 minutes of roadway hell – 8 minutes longer than the first time I braved the freeway in 2019, for my solo lobo Lucky Dragon {45^th Wedding anniversary supper} sans Bob.

I studiously avoid the I-5 corridor … but there is no way to avoid it if I plan to make the Cougar jaunt.

And, I do plan to do that drive.