"Oh my gosh, Febreeze saved my life." -my roommate

The past couple of days, Caroline and I have had a third roommate sharing our townhouse with us. Unfortunately, he hasn't contributed to rent...partly because he was too fast and sneaky and partly because he was some sort of beetle/roach. After discussing what to do about this freeloader, I had volunteered to take care of the task since I really don't mind insects or bugs of any kind (roaches are a different story though, and I was hoping very much that this was not a roach). Unfortunately I was completely unsuccessful in tracking him down so I went to bed without really thinking anything of it. If nothing else, Chip might find himself an incredible treat. But, while I was sleeping soundly, Caroline realized that our roommate was hiding out in her bedroom. A self-proclaimed insectophobe, she was about to battle to the death with our creepy crawly companion. Her description of the night's events had me in tears. Apparently, the creature was crawling around the walls by her door. Too terrified to risk walking through the door where he could easily jump on her, she contemplated calling for backup. A bottle of the fabric refresher Febreeze on her dresser caught her eye and she proceeded to "re-fresh" him into a state of utter confusion. As she was spritzing furiously, the bug fell from the wall and apparently staggered around completely disoriented. He managed to exit her room and make it a few feet down the hallway (while she was going through her shoe collection trying to decide which one to sacrifice).

Fast forward to this morning when I woke up to find a box in the middle of the hallway that wasn't there when I went to sleep. Under the box, one of Caroline's sneakers. Under the sneaker, an enormous black smear of exoskeleton and antennae that smelled like "crisp fresh linen." I was able to closely examine the remains and was relieved to determine that our mysterious house guest was in fact some sort of cricket. Caroline woke up a little while ago and told me, "Oh my gosh, Febreeze saved my life last night." I'm so proud of her for facing her fear!

*****
The whole experience reminded me of Katie's "roommates" in the Dominican Republic...I'm much happier to have shared my home for the past couple of days with a cricket rather than deal with the tarantulas, 'pedes, and other creepy crawlies of Bohechio!