There is much good news and a tiny little bit of bad news.
First, the good news. My other mitten is found! Meerah is so excited about this. Though my hand thawed out over the weekend, it got very cold again and I went to check my neighbors’ trash with very chilly fingers.
Imagine my happiness when three houses down the street I discovered my mitten. The neighbors in this house put their trash in a large, rubber container with wheels. It is very sturdy with a heavy-duty lid that latches securely. Meerah can see the advantages of this kind of container. It would keep dogs and other pests out of your trash, and now that Meerah knows how to open this type of container, I can very quickly open it to see if it holds any useful items.
But back to my mitten and my happiness at finding it. These neighbors with their trash on wheels, put my mitten in a sealed plastic bag on top of their container. In the bag was a little note, which said:
Meerah,
Here is your mitten. We found it in our driveway last week. We thought it might be yours, but asked around the street just to be sure. Please stop going through our trash. It was cute at first, but now it’s just creepy.
Sincerely,
The H’s
PS – Also, please stop giving us recipes for preparing dogs, cats and rabbits. The animals you see in our backyard are our pets – not our dinner! Thank you.
Do you see why Meerah was so happy? My mitten was returned. My neighbors are so kind, if a little bit crazy. You should see the things they throw out – every week. A couple times I thought about sharing with them the many uses I have found for the items they throw out, but I did not. Perhaps it was good that I did not, because you can see in the note they left me how proud and stubborn they are. They would not appreciate Meerah’s help. I gave them my best recipes too!
I had little time to ponder my neighbor’s strange behavior and attitudes because after quickly checking their trash (sadly, for the last time), I discovered something even stranger at my next neighbor’s house. In front of their tightly-knotted, black trash bags was a slim wooden post, and on that post was a small red sign that said: STOP GOING THROUGH OUR TRASH, MEERAH!
I was shocked and slightly angry. I was so upset I did not even check their trash. Moving on to other houses on the street I found many other signs and notes asking me not to check the trash. One house even had a picture of me checking their trash the week before. They put this picture on their trash container on wheels with a big X drawn through it, then they wrote on it: MEERAH, NO!
It was a very puzzling and unprofitable trash day. And the tiny bit of bad news is that Meerah discovered many of her neighbors are crazy. This is not good. But Meerah is still happy about finding my mitten. This is very good. Maybe I will ask the nice lady about the crazy neighbors. She might have some suggestions for Meerah.
Maybe the first crazy neighbors would like some recipes for preparing goat.
