Ewwww, That Smell!

     Have you ever had a smell in your house that just won't quit?  Well, that's what I'm dealing with...although it's a dead smell...and I can't find it.  Thankfully the smell is in the cellar.  Sadly I go down there numerous times a day.
     It all started on Monday when I went to the cellar for canning jars.  This gal Kid knows is doing a fundraiser and had asked around for jar donations.  Rarely being one to say no to a kid's fundraiser, I said I'd happily give her a dozen along with some extras to have painted for myself.  Anyway...I'm kind of getting off track.  I went to the basement for the jars I've used over the past few months and as I was looking through the boxes I found a totally creepy snake skin.  Yep, that's right...a snake skin...in with some of my canning jars.  *shudder*  Needless to say I was not impressed.
     Suddenly I had numerous questions rattling through my head...the most important being where is the snake now?  Is it living in a box?  Will I find it before it finds me?  Is it Anaconda-sized, just waiting to swallow me hole,  with my family profiting from the Lifetime (or SiFi) movie deal that'll arise from it?  We watched a television program earlier this week about a man that wanted to be swallowed by an Anaconda.  Yuck.  The issue of where the mystery snake went has made me put a plan of action together where I ask the kids to go down there for anything I need that I know they'll be able to find.  There's a lot of stuff in the cellar.
     Now you're wondering where the smell comes into the story, I bet.  All this talk about a snake, but not the smell.  Well, next to the snake skin was a dead mouse.  Again, yuck.  I got it and the snake skin out of the box and threw them in the woods, by the way.  Problem is, on Tuesday when I went into the cellar there was this light odorifus odor of dead mouse lingering in the air.  I know I threw the one outside that I had found, so where is this smell coming from?  Hopefully not anywhere near wherever the snake is.
     I had figured *pft* the bait trap did it's job.  I can handle the smell of one little mouse...although if I could find it and get rid of it that would be better...but the snake...  Since Tuesday the smell has increased from the smell of one dead mouse to the smell of one dead mouse and all of it's minions.  For all I know it could be the snake, the mouse, and it's minions.  The smell is that stinky.
     I had hoped last night when Hon went down in the cellar to unplug the outside Christmas lights that he would notice and oh...I don't know...maybe look for the air de-freshener, but he didn't say a word.  I'm wondering if his head is completely stuffed up from a cold.  I've had Eldest go down there and turn the water to the barn on and off for me.  Still, not a word.  They're making me feel like it's all in my head, when it's actually all in my nose.
     How long does it take for a decaying mouse and it's minions to dissipate?  Possibly a snake?  I'm rooting for the snake, personally.  If I reach into a container or box for something and pull up a snake instead, trust me, you'll know.  That's because the scream coming from my lungs will cut through air and travel distances only dreamed of.  

---