The smell of death is not one easily forgotten once it has been smelt, and that was the case for one family this week, after they became aware of a dreadful stench, in their bedroom, of some kind of animal which, despite a lengthy search, could not be found.
Moys Kenwood , 57, his wife and children live in a large, ranging house in Tapon commune, the envy of many of the other residents. It's also the envy of many rodents, with rats and mice, as well as birds, ants, cockroaches, spiders, scorpions, and snakes paying frequent visits to the property for food and shelter.
On Monday, the householder walked into the ground floor main bedroom, and was immediately aware of the 'reek of death', the telltale aroma of something having died in the room. He suspected a gecko, but his wife said she thought it was a mouse.
Could it have been a snake? Possibly. Nobody knew.
He quickly decided to conduct a thorough investigation.
He first moved two cupboards full of clothes, thinking the animal might have got trapped after having had a drawer shut on it. Next, he looked under a shoe rack. There was plenty of dust, but no death. He scoured around, under and behind the fridge, around some big, plastic storage boxes, inside the speakers of his stereo, down the side of the bed - all to no avail.
The odor of decay seemed to be worse each time he entered the room, and felt as if it were assaulting his nostrils. Try as he might, he could locate the 'dead thing', and concluded that it must have expired in the roof space above the room, and will, therefore, probably still be there when archeologists of the future finally excavate the house from the earth thousands of years from now.
Needless to say, Mrs. Kenwood was not happy with this conclusion.
