This is why I'm not allowed pets...

Some caveats:

1. We spent a stereotypical sleepless weekend in Seattle
2. I've got too much to do
3. My left frontal sinus decided to explode during the descent as we came back into San Francisco and I'm on a cocktail of decongestants, antibiotics, painkillers and steroids that makes me feel a little odd

None of which really excuses the bad news (which I shall start with). Make sure you're sitting down it's a shocker. Squish D, in a tragic case of nominative determinism, got squashed.

The ants had been incredibly busy over the weekend, there are multiple new tunnels which are mainly vertical, but there are complicated interconnections around the edges and the rubble that's been removed has been carefully added to the top to make another area for digging. This means that the distance between the ants and the lid has been decreased, to the extent that Marduk T-shirt Men's Room Incident spends most of her time chewing on the rubber seal.

Once a week you're supposed to let a bit of air into the habitat, there are little airholes in the top (just the two, about large enough to slip the end of a paper-clip into) but I decided to open it a crack to get a proper influx of fresh air. About five of the industrious ladies were waving at the lid and I tapped them down beforehand. Levering up the lid, I failed to notice Squish D clinging to the underside and as I immediately replaced it she became trapped (avert your eyes for a grisly detail) with a sickening crunch between the seal and the walls. RIP Squish D. Actually RIBB (Rest in Biohazard Bin).

As if I didn't feel guilty enough, the rest of the colony became avenging Valkyries, and swarmed to the precise area, wondering where Squish D could have gone to and vowing vengeance on her thick-fingered, idiot nemesis (below).



I feel a bit overcome. I'll leave the good news for a separate post and leave this one to the memory of the short-lived Squish D. She was personally responsible for renewing the interest in Keith's tunnel and her star shone so brightly before its tragic quenching between two pieces of perspex. So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, goodbye.

PS

If this nominative determinism thing holds true, I'm quite concerned for Splodey.