thought I would share an interesting story from our recent trip to Colorado....
This happened at Morphy Lake, NM. The campground we stay at is small but very well used in
the season up to when they close at the end of September. There are several vault or pit toilets around
the lake. The one closest to our campsite needed to be pumped out in a bad way. A cloud of flies would
swarm over you when you opened the door, that's how bad it was. The door had been propped open to
try and equalize out the flies and the smell.
So, some important background. My sister and I were big
fans of the X-files TV show. One that really stuck with us was about this human-like creature that came
over in the septic system on a Russian boat, then got flushed into a US septic system and started
sucking people down into the toilets as they sat on them. Just as "Jaws" ruined the ocean for many, I
always thought of this episode when venturing in to a pit toilet (even though they are not connected to
anything--I know, I know).
So, it was a dark evening as I headed to the toilet to pee. Just as I finished
there was a ruckus UNDER me, in the bottom of the toilet (which wasn't too far under me do to the
fullness of the toilet). I immediately thought "Russian septic monster" and jumped straight up and off
the toilet, pulling my pants back on, all in one graceful movement(yea-maybe not). Since nothing came
out after me I eased over and had a look with my headlamp. Staring up at me was not the "septic
monster", but a poor owl that had somehow navigated down into the toilet, and it was standing on all the
"stuff" and looking at me. I immediately called El Hombre and Muley over, starting with "You are NOT going
to believe what is in the toilet!". After much discussion about the owl, we figured out that he was not
going to fly out of there on his own. The opening was too narrow and he couldn't get any lift to get up
anyway. There wasn't anyone to call either. Every time we checked on him, he hopped right to the middle
and just stared at us. I found a 2x4 board that just fit from the edge of the lid down onto the top of
all the toilet paper and poo (which was actually quite solid-ewww!) It was almost the full moon, so we
lifted the lid and propped the door wide open, and wished him luck. The next morning there was no sign
of him, so we like to assume he walked his way up the board and flew far, far away. I thought of taking
a picture of him, but El Hombre talked me out of it. Probably a good thing!! I've heard of spiders or maybe scorpions hanging out in a toilet, but can't say I've heard of an owl being down there
~Cookie
Morphy Lake NM (for Homero)
