Brutus, Scout, and Private Mouse

I think I may have told you about the nightly visitors we have- rats, spiders, and birds. Well, the saga continues. Bekah believes she has seen a huge lizard. For a few weeks now I have heard a large something freely roaming about at night. Our walls are unfinished- they don’t reach the ceiling- so there is a “pathway” of sorts for critters to use. Something has been dropping rocks / leaves down on me as I sleep. Bekah fears rats. I hate spiders. Lizards seem slightly friendlier.

So I named our lizard “Brutus”. He is actually the head honcho of all wandering critters. Those who refuse to follow his command he eats, thus attaining his massive size, strength, and fearsome reputation. He is a direct descendent of the roman lizards, therefore he uses his walls/roads with ease. [my brother would know the real name of those roman wall roads….]

Brutus has commanded the birds to act as scouts. They fly in and out through various secret passages and survey the territory. As there are many birds with only one job, we address them all as “Scout”. At any given time throughout the day (and night) you can hear Bekah and I saying “Scout, Get OUT!” (it rhymes, we are too cool.)

Early this morning I was woken by a small rock being dropped on my face. Now accustomed to the blitzkriegs I merely said, “Scout, Get OUT” and remained snuggled in my blankets. Then I felt something different. Something was definitely crawling across my bed. With ninja like speed I flipped all bed sheets / blanket off the bed, shook out my pillow, and waited. Satisfied that I had fought off the sneak attack successfully, I remade my bed and went back to sleep.

A few hours later I got up to begin my day. Bekah woke shortly after and greeted me with “I caught Brutus last night”. More accurately, he caught himself. Exploring her duffle bag it seems he got caught. It took a minute for that to sink in- the great Brutus trapped in an unzipped duffle bag?! We headed into her room and I zipped the bag closed. Brutus was quiet. Only a slight shift from the great Brutus as I lifted the bag and carried it outside.

We took the bag to a field near our house and I began to unzip it slowly. Still silence. A stick served as the “opener” for the unzipped flap. As soon as daylight flooded the duffle, out darted Pvt. Mouse!

Brutus truly is a wise and cunning leader. He sent a mere private to lay this morning’s diversion. As Bekah and I marched to the field, Brutus and Scout must have been observing. They now know duffle bags are unsafe and have determined what our strategy is for dealing with invaders. Furthermore, we left the territory unguarded!
We may have lost this battle, but I have hopes we will win the war. Brutus is unaware of the plans I have set in motion already. We are calling in reinforcements. Soon the secret passageways should all be blocked, preventing Scout from surveying our territory. Hard to run an offensive with no ground info!!