Presence of Predators

I started off to my rep meeting yesterday morning in our 2007 Prius.  Great car, never had a bit of trouble with it.  But it was running really rough and the engine check light came on and off.  After consulting with Dennis, brought it home, taking our minivan instead.  Dennis brought it to the dealership and forced it in.  Turns out that some rodents have been gnawing on some wires.  $575 later, it's fixed.  Now Dennis sees some evidence of the same thing with the van.  Looks like we are going to have to purchase some car/rodent specialty items.  A good thing is that Dennis made room in the garage to park the Prius.

What a concept, park the car in the garage.  Crazy talk!  However we don't have a working garage opener.  Dennis checked and they don't make them for pre 1982 openers.

Consulting the internet, I found that 'the presence of predators' can deter the mousies or ratties or whoever's chewing on our car.  I lectured our two cats, George and Starbaby who like to spend summer evenings in the front yard on the driveway.  "Guys," I said, "what am I paying you for?  The rodents are having a meal on our car wires right here in the front yard and what are you doing about it?"  They looked unperturbed and uninterested.

As an illustration, on a warm afternoon, I went outside to the district of the predators.  They were outside all right, doing their usual thing.  The car is right there. Do they look on duty and motivated to attack wire-chewing miscreants?

Not so much, yeah.

George, making his usual nice contrast to the driveway.