Meet Mardy

Remember my story teaser? Last Sunday I was cleaning through one of the upstairs bedrooms (which I moved into yesterday), and I found this pretty box hidden back in a corner.

And this is what was in the box...

Check out those teeth!
I laughed so hard my stomach was sore the next day. I wanted so badly to share it with someone else who would think it was funny that I got out my BFA phone list and desperately searched for anyone I thought would not be disgusted. I thought maybe a couple of the guys might think it funny, but some of the guys around here are a strange breed and would probably think I was hitting on them or trying to find an excuse to call them. So, I called the girls who just moved out of this apartment and said “you'll never guess what I found in the bedroom!” I don't think they enjoyed it as I'd hoped. Haha, oh well. Maybe someday I will have a friend that I feel comfortable approaching that will enjoy the humor of things like this with me.

This little creature, a Marder, is a wicked thing that sounded like folklore to me until I saw one. These marders love eating insulation and hoses in cars and houses. The way people talked about these mysterious critters that are too fast to be seen or caught-- you can just see their footprints on your car in the morning or hear them running in the walls at night-- seemed a bit made up. People buy expensive "Marder Devices" for their cars to ward them off, spray pepper sprays on felt pads they attach to their cars...all kinds of stuff. But, now, I believe.

So, obviously, I'm not throwing this little guy away. They're too fast to be caught, but I have one in a pretty floral box! The hard work is already done! Some day, some punk high school boy will pull a prank on me, and I will be ready with my retaliation. Katie was not a fan of my keeping him, so I took him to our scary shed.

And now he can be friends with the other things people are scared of that also live in that shed, like Natasha here:

So, now that you've seen what I saw that day and have either laughed with me or are now too disgusted to eat anytime soon knowing that I held a petrified nasty animal, here's the best part. I ran into the family who lived in this apartment before the last pair of girls and told them about it. I was definitely not expecting to hear "we left him there?!?! Honey, Sarah found Mardy!!!!" Elation ensued. WOW. The mother of the family proceeded to tell me that this apartment used to be infested with marders, and just a few years ago the roof was removed and the generations of marders extracted from the walls. They found this petrified one and kept it as a show-and-tell item for the kids. His name is Mardy...and they want him back... to take him to their home in the States. I'd like to see them explain him at customs.