13th June - The rat in the toilet

13th June 2008 - the 18th anniversary of my dad's death - Stan Pollock (John Stanley William Pollock) - throat cancer, aged 72. I can't believe it's 18 years since we spoke, but I do dream about him, and my mum, quite often. They are always younger and healthy in my dreams.

On the night of 12th/13th June I had finished work for a one week break. I was relaxed and slept well, waking occasionally to reposition myself around the cats on the bed, and dropping back to sleep. I had a strange dream that I was walking around a garden. It seemed to be the garden to a new house I had moved to, and I came across a small pond in which half a dozen mice were swimming. Amazed, I commented that I was surprised how soon the mice had settled in and learned to swim.

My bathroom is dark, having only a small high window obscured by dried flowers and cobwebs. I hobbled to the toilet when I woke at 6 am on Friday morning, struggling as usual to open the bathroom door which I keep locked so the cats cannot do their killing on my furry bathside rug. Lifting the lid of the toilet I was mildly surprised to see a floating lump in there - I tend to be healthy bowel-wise and don't produce floaters, and anyway I always flush the toilet before putting the lid down. Anyway, I sat down, did the necessary, and stood to turn and flush. Focussing better, as I had now been up for a few minutes, I noticed eyes, nose and whiskers on the floater. It was a mouse! A large mouse. I gingerly touched it but it was dead, so I flushed it away.

Then I started to wonder.

The door was shut and the lid was down, how could a mouse get into my toilet?
More strangely, why did I dream about mice swimming?

Now (2 days later) I accept that the large mouse was probably a small rat, and I am nervous of going to the toilet at all having googled "rat in toilet" - DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE A STRONG STOMACH AND AN UPSTAIRS TOILET.

more to come.