Unintended Consequences.

Professionally, one of my jobs is anticipating the unintended consequences of my clients' requests so that a desired change doesn't produce undesired results. Kyle and I recently had a personal lesson in unintended consequences.

In August, Kyle and Tim destroyed our back deck. The feral cats making residence under the deck and taunting our precious puppy were among the many things we did not like about that deck. Last week, I noticed small droppings out back. Neither Kyle nor I could readily "Name That Poop!"

However, the 'mystery' was solved this weekend. On Saturday evening, I headed to the basement to do some laundry before bed. I opened the door, turned on the lights and started to head down the stairs when, on a step near the floor, I noticed a mouse (!) scurrying away.

So, now we are suffering the unintended consequences of evicting the feral cats from our backyard.

This morning before I carried another load of laundry down into the basement, I stomped through the kitchen, flipped the basement lights on and off (and on and off and on and off), and knocked on the walls. Kyle asked what on earth I was doing.

Um, I was scaring away the mice ...

- H