About a quarter century ago. The windows of my car were smashed in an act of vandalism. It took me a good while to scrape up enough cash to get them repaired. A homeless man took up residence in the car. We negotiated a deal. If he kept an eye on the vehicle, he could stay in there until I could afford new glass.
It worked out well, I suppose, until I fixed the windows and he left, but it alerted me to the valuable shelter a vehicle can provide.
This fall, a mouse started living in my current vehicle. I tried ousting him by providing better shelter and food elsewhere, but he’s stuck it out, leaving bits of not so pleasant evidence of his presence in the seats, trays, and during a cold snap, when I was trouble shooting the trailer light issue, I found a lovely soft nest under the rear cargo tray. I hastily looked for babies and removed it, only to realize that this small creature spent days or more working on this and had nowhere to go in the cold, so I ransacked the trash and rebuilt the nest for it. After all, it was really my fault for not ousting it more effectively in the warmer season.
Yesterday, I had to take my car in for inspection, and lo, it needed overnight work. I cannot tell you the worry that I exercised over this mouse. What if he got vacuumed? What if he leapt off the hoist while foraging and couldn’t get back up? Do they use poison or traps at the car shop?
The car’s back home. I can’t bear to disturb that nest now. It’s cold out. It belongs to the mouse until Spring, unless it hopped off at the Subaru dealership.