Sooooo.....

[MouseWife]

Teresa, that does look like one fat, contented cat.

Jenny, no, not really. This is up in WA where things are a bit different than here. My sis in law said that someone would come and pick it up. It was not to go in her compost, nor could it be recycled.

It was really difficult for us, how much they recycled. After 3 months, she said she took 3 grocery sized bags to the trash place {??}. Paper trash was burned in a pit at night {while we enjoyed a wonderful fire}, they used mostly fresh foods, not processed, not a lot of packaging.

It really made us think of how much trash we generate. That is off of the topic, though, but the animals routinely would be picked up, from what she told me. A lot of critters in her hood. She had a bunch of chickens herself. A bunch of fat, juicy chickens. :0) Every morning, our little 4 year old cousin would get a little basket and go outside and hunt for the eggs.

[Prudence]

It smells strongly of wood smoke at the moment. Very bizarre.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Cool, I understand about the recycling etc, but to have a dead animal rotting for days...I would have called animal control or something.

[MouseWife]

I think it wasn't too badly decomposing. He just looked like he was sleeping. It was freezing up there!! As well as raining. I'd imagine someone in the household called. We left so I don't know how long it took for them to remove it. I am curious, though, myself.

We'd like to maybe go live up there eventually. Removal of dead animals in a timely manner would be tops on my list.

[CoasterMatt]

Now this thread has me singing "Dead Puppies" in the office...

[Alex]

It would never occur to me to call anybody about a dead animal in or near the road unless it was a hazard (like something deer sized) or a domestic animal.

Definitely not over a dead squirrel. If it's presence bothered me I might throw it into a bush.

But then I've watched many rabbits, owls, pigeons, and squirrels go through the complete consumption/decomposition process on my walks to the train station every morning. Squirrel tails and the rabbits' feet last the longest.

[Cynthia]

Alex you should grab those tails and make yourself a bitchen hat!

[Alex]

I had enough of squirrel tails when I was a kid. One our cats was a master squirrel hunter (and also a brilliant butterfly-in-flight sniper) and that's the part she'd bring home and deposit on the living room floor to showcase her brilliance.

[MouseWife]

Oh gosh. So glad my sis in law didn't have a cat to drag this in!! I think a neighbors cat may have killed the squirrel.

Since you put it that way, I wonder if that is what she was intending, to let it decompose and 'recycle' itself into the ground?

And, I wonder what us neighborhood type people do. A mouse, sure, toss it in the trash. But a cat or squirrel? Do those go into the trash?

[CoasterMatt]

No silly, they go in the NEIGHBORS trash