On Monday I was home alone, and kept hearing weird noises upstairs. Oddly enough, instead of automatically thinking it was a rapist hiding up there, I decided it was just wind in the various exhaust pipes that stick up out of the roof and left it at that.
Tuesday when I was in the laundry room putting in wash, I heard all sorts of wiggling and rattling behind the dryer and realized something was alive inside the vent hose. I didn't dry any clothes because it creeped me out to cook the little critter. The next time I was out, I bought a new vent tube. Then forgot to tell anyone in my family about it.
Wednesday Tara did laundry, dried my load of clothes and her load of clothes. So I suppose she was the unknowing executioner.
Thursday when I opened the laundry room door, I caught a faint whiff of "Eu-de-Dead Animal-Cologne". I finally remembered to tell Wayne, and he came home that evening and took the vent hose off, and sure enough, there was a big dead bird that was nearly as big around as the vent hose. I'm surprised our house didn't catch fire when Tara did 2 loads of laundry.
There are 2 morals to this story:
1) As FlyLady keeps telling me, dryer vents are a fire hazard and should be cleaned out every 6 months. I've never worried about my dryer vent before, and have never cleaned out any of them in any house, even houses we have lived in for 11 years. Think about all that flammable fuzz that gets trapped in there, with or without dead animals.
2) Make sure your husband knows that he is the "Dead Animal Specialist" in your family. Because EWWWWWWW!!!! us girls don't want that title! I am definitely a sexist when it comes to this. I would pay someone instead of hauling out a dead animal myself. Thats a MALE's job.
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