Thursday, November 13, 2008

Animales en mi aula

It is 6:40am, and I put my key in my classroom door to unlock it. I turn the handle, and an all encompassing smell overpowers my senses. I quickly send a student to the office for some air freshener, then look around the room for the culprit of the odor. There, in the middle of the floor, is a dead, furry spider a little bit bigger than my thumb. I kick the spider outside, but the smell remains. I search around, trying to uncover the mystery of this stench. I move my wastebasket aside, and there it was- a dead mouse. I had seen evidence of this mouse before- all of my tootsie rolls had been eaten from my desk drawer- just the wrappers with tooth marks remained- but I had assumed the mouse had moved on. It hadn't. It died in my room of a diabetic shock. Too much sugar. My principal came to my room and helped me remove the rodent. After dousing the afflicted area with Lysol spray, my room smelled like a field of wildflowers. My students made comments about the particular smell of my room all day long. I thank the mouse for allowing me to add it to my list of dead creatures that I have found in room E4 at EIS. gecko, spider, fly, mouse, cockroach

2 comments:

Dan said...

the cleaning lady did inform me that birds are good-luck when they come inside, so maybe rats are, too! (although, i think she just made it up to make me feel better and stop shrieking)

Maggie said...

That is disgusting. I think dead animals are one of the worst things to surprisingly find. I found a dead mouse in my shoe once, after removing them in the doorway of a friends' house. I was always weary of taking off my shoes when entering a house after that day. I hope the smell of your room has improved since this day.