Reflective thoughts and poems

palides2021 said:
Well, the last few days were a little chaotic. I had several projects to take care of, but the most pressing project was getting rid of a dead animal underneath my sunroom. Remember the sunroom that I had built last year? It was joined to the rest of my deck. I have enjoyed that sunroom immensely, playing the violin there, entertaining friends and family, but things changed very quickly a few days ago. Let me tell you how it all happened. Let me tell you a story.

Easter time, in April, our semi-rural area experienced a fierce storm similar to a tornado, but it tore straight through our community instead of swirling around like a tornado does (I even wrote a poem about it and sent it to be published). I was not in the area at that time. I was visiting family for Easter.

When I returned days later, several trees were down in our neighborhood, including two pear trees in my back yard. The tree companies were overwhelmed. I heard one company had over 130 calls the day after the storm. Fast forward to last week. The tree people finally came to take my two trees away. I was sad to see the pear trees go. They had produced many juicy pears throughout the years that I gave to friends and family.

When the tree people came to take the pear trees away, they said they saw a fox near my deck. They even took a picture of it and showed it to me. Its back was facing the camera. All I could see was its orange color and pointy ears as it gazed into the crawl space of the deck. If it weren't for the ears, I would have thought it was a cat. Long blades of grass covered the rest of its body. The men said it had sores on its back.

A few days later (this was last Thursday), when I went into the sunroom, I smelled something different. Normally, it was a pleasure to be in there. I opened the windows to aerate it, but the smell persisted. I forgot about it. Friday, the smell was stronger. I went outside on my deck. It smelled something terribly bad, like a mixture of vomit, rotten eggs, and something else.

I walked around to see where the smell was coming from. At first, I thought it was under the deck because I saw the trellis under the deck had a hole in it. I assumed the sunroom had been partitioned off from the deck, because that was what I had been told they would do, but I was wrong. Any animal entering the crawl space of the deck had access to the crawl space of my sunroom.

Until I solved the problem, I kept the sunroom closed after that. I called over 10 phone numbers, trying to get information, and they kept passing me to someone else. I called the builder of the sunroom and told them the situation. They suggested a wildlife removal company. The wildlife company came and found nothing underneath the deck, but they definitely smelled it. They suggested it was under the sunroom, but they couldn't access the sunroom's bottom board. So I had the builder come and open up the sunroom crawl space. Now this is the scene that was very disgusting, and I hope you haven't eaten when you read this.

The night before, it had thundered and rained hard, and as we were walking around in the wet grass and passing the deck, the builder remarked calmly, "There are a lot of maggots out here." I hadn't seen them but when I zoomed in, they were all over the place, crawling everywhere, the size of tiny rice wiggling their way from the deck onto the cement path, unto the stairs, the grass, etc. I jumped away once I saw them. Yikes! I was sick to my stomach. It was like the worst nightmare.

Meanwhile, it was a sunny day, and the smell of death was more horrendous, encircling the whole back area. The builder removed the board and stepped away. He told me it was a fox and he could see the leg. I wondered if it was the same fox that had been hovering around the deck a week or so ago.

The wildlife company came several hours later. By now, the maggots were mostly gone. I think the birds had a feast day with them. The smell was less, because when they removed the board, it had aerated everything, but it was still potent. With a shovel, the wildlife people removed the remains of the fox, which was mostly bones by now, and placed it in a heavy-duty bag. I was told it was there at least four weeks, which made me think that it might have been injured in the Easter storm?

Meanwhile, the fox that the tree people had seen near the deck might have been another one, maybe the child fox looking under the deck for its mother? It did look small. That thought made me sad. The wildlife guy told me when an animal is ready to die, it goes into the strangest places to die. I found that interesting. He poured some liquid in the area to sanitize it, I believe. We will keep the area open for several days. The builder will return later in the week to close up the whole area under the deck and sunroom so we have no more surprises.

So now, as I write to you, I have claimed my sunroom back. The smell is literally gone, unless I go real close to where the fox lay. I can find time to relax and write you a story.

I ask you dear friends, should I be charged for closing off the deck area since they did not close off the sunroom? Curious what your thoughts are. Thank you for taking the time to read all the way down.
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How very sad! So sorry this happened.
As for being charged, is the agreement was to close it off and they did not, I'd say you shouldn't owe.
 

What a horrible thing to happen to you and your beautiful sunroom! That is a problem living with wild critters. I think the fox thought it was the perfect place to die with no other critters coming after him. The contractor company should not charge you for something you expected them to do when they built it. If it is written in your paperwork from them that would help.
 

katlupe said:
What a horrible thing to happen to you and your beautiful sunroom! That is a problem living with wild critters. I think the fox thought it was the perfect place to die with no other critters coming after him. The contractor company should not charge you for something you expected them to do when they built it. If it is written in your paperwork from them that would help.
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Thanks, @katlupe! I appreciate what you said. Although this is a semi-rural area, I live near a hospital, community college, and a thriving community. Seeing a fox was the last thing I expected! When the contractor came the other day and removed the board for the crawlspace, I told him that I thought there would be something closing off the sunroom from the rest of the deck. He said he remembered telling his people to do it. So I do have a verbal agreement. It's his supervisor and the boss of the company that I need to make sure are on the same page.
 
My son is visiting for a few days, which always brings me joy. He is very busy, juggling two part-time jobs (yes) and studying for his master's. During the summers, he volunteers as a counselor for teenage boys at a camp our archdiocese runs; it's an hour away. So he drove from Boston a few days early to visit me before going to the camp. He also does things around the house, which I am grateful. Yesterday, we caught up on our news, went out to eat, and watched a movie afterward. The movie was inside the mall, and after the movie, we walked around the mall enjoying some ice cream.

This morning, I have the HVAC people coming to service my HVAC and mini-splits. Afterward, I plan to go to the city park with my son and visit the Fine Arts museum there.

Wishing all of you a wonderful day!
 
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