Mouse Chowder
Going back a few years ago I lived in a flat above a pet shop in Ipswich. This was great for me, being bit of an animal lover (not in the "Hold still" "Baahhh" kinda way!) I used to help out on a weekend feeding the animals and generally tidying.

Unfortunately all of the pet foods and grain tended to attract mice that were not contained in cages. It didn't bother me too much. Of a night when lying in bed you could hear them crawling up the walls and scuttling around. I used to find it quite cute and considered them my little unseen friends. I had two cats at the time and so the mice tended not to actually come in to the living area of the flat.

So one day I'm having a shower and I notice that I seem to smell, well, a bit odd. So I have a good scrub and get on with my day. But everyday from then on whenever I showered I seemed to smell a bit funky, no matter how many exotic soaps I used. Weird.

After a couple of weeks I start to think, maybe it's not me, maybe it's the water? ( I was stoned most of the time back then so wasn't the quickest thinker). So I clamber up in to the loft and crawl to the UNCOVERED water tank. Bastard cheap landlord. I peer in the water tank with my torch and what do I see? Two little furry bodies floating belly up, all limbs splayed. With bits hanging off. And a stronger version of the very odd smell that I thought was me.

Obviously not wanting to touch said decaying meeses, I ran down to the pet shop and grabbed one of those little nets aquarium fanciers have. Back in the loft I try to fish out mousey no.1 who promptly disintegrates, little verminous legs and innards dispersing through tank. The smell was unbelievable, leading me, in the words of Scaryduck, to bawk rich, brown vomit in to the water tank. The force of the two liquids meeting managed to break apart mouse no.2, inevitably leading to more chundering. For some reason at that moment, I also noticed the selection of 8 or 9 ground beetles floating around at the bottom of the tank as well.

Yes, I had been washing in decomposing mouse and beetle stew for at least three weeks.

The phobia bit (although I don't consider it an irrational fear): I've been a homeowner now for four years. And once a week, every week, you will find me up in our loft checking the water tank for foreign bodies and ensuring the tank cover is firmly in place. I still cannot drink water directly from the tap (even though I know it comes from the mains) and I find myself smelling the water in the shower on a daily basis before I get under it.

Length? 2 X 2 inches = 25 gallons of Mouse Bisque
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 11:35, 6 replies)

Oh dear
Unlucky :P
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 11:36, closed)

*goes into loft
to check the water tank*
( Far Out Slave last ate at, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 11:48, closed)

Same thing happened to me when I was little^^
there were bits coming out of our taps, but every time I complained to my Mum that I wasn't going to bathe in murky water that had bits in it, she just told me to shut up and get on with it.
We found out months later that we had a failed squirrel olympic swimmer in our tank and a rotten piece of 2x4.
Barstards.
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 12:03, closed)

Probably the worst part.....
...is that being a smoker I used to wake up with a dry mouth, so when I was in the shower washing my face I'd open my mouth and gargle the water. Although I did spit and not swallow!
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 12:09, closed)

Oh man, i feel for you
.
(xendragon changing the bulb since, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 13:30, closed)

thanks to big smurf
i now feel somewhat queezy
(pogo_it, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 15:00, closed)