What did I ever do to the critters of Crittenden?

In the last few weeks, I have been under attack.  First a few weeks ago a racoon decided to take up residence in the hay loft in my barn as was chronicled in a previous post.  I found out about the second attack yesterday.  It all started when we were driving back from vacation a few Saturday’s ago.  We were about 100 miles from home and the ‘Service 4WD’ light came one.  The really frustrating thing is that the exact same thing happened last year when we were driving back from vacation.  The service light last year resulted in 3 seperate trips to the dealer and nearly $2,000 in repairs over the course of 6 months.  So when I dropped of the Tahoe at the dealer last Saturday I wasn’t too optimistic about the disgnosis.  However, I didn’t expect the news I got back at all: my problem was caused by mice.  Specically mice building their homes in the fuse box and under the fuel rails. Take a look for yourself:

So it seems I have been running a mouse mobile home for the last few months or even a year.  The dealer tells me I am lucky that it didn’t start a fire, but honestly I don’t feel so lucky.  I now have a few options:

• Take the car back from the dealer and immediately trade it in on something new?  Not the most ethical thing I think…besides, I have no idea what car I would actually buy right now.
• Take the car back and clean it up myself and then wait and see what breaks next.  This doesn’t sound like a good option to me.
• Have them clean it up to the tune of about $500.  No guarantee that they will get all of it, but they will replace any parts that the mice have chewed up.
• Have them replace the fuse box and fuel rail (rather than just clean it) to the tune of $1000.  It seems my insurance will cover any expense above $500 so this is the same net cost to me as the third option, so if I go with the ‘fix it’ path, this would be the way I go.

So, now I need to do some serious rat/mouse/racoon/possum and wallaby (don’t laugh – saw some with one in their purse at Tractor Supply a few weeks ago) proofing of my house and barn, try to figure out what to do with the Tahoe..and determine what I have done to upset the rodent population so much!

Varsity Blues move