FreeBSD Server: 1, Furry little mouse: 0
Tags: servers
I was just diagnosing some weird kernel crashes on the BSD server, and decided to pop open the case to take a look and add some more cooling. The inside of the case was pretty hot, so I added two new Antec Pro Cooling fans, mounted inside with some stiff clipped coathanger over the drives and the CPU cooler (which has its own fan on it also). The case is roomy enough to handle it, so no biggie.
As I was closing up the case, the sliding lid didn’t seem to fit right. Its slotted tabs kept running into something. I looked closer, and it looked like a clump of dust or fuzz or something was wrapped around one of the wires.
I reached in and grabbed it to remove it and it was… how shall I say… stiff and crunchy, not like the dustball I expected to grab. I put it in the light so I could see it and… EEEECH!
Wrapped around one of the case’s signal cables, was the empty shell-of-a-carcass, of a little grey field mouse. There was only the top of a skull, the fur coat around the back, and a little segmented tail.. and two eyes. No organs, no skeleton, nothing at all that would make up muscles, bones or body.
Inside the bottom of the case, were thousands of bits of what looked like more dust, but apparently was the remnants of what used to be its coat, fur, skeleton and organs.
YUCK!
I cleaned it out, and all should be well again…. I hope, but where there’s one mouse, there’s bound to be more. I’ll have to start opening up the other servers and see what might in their cases. Maybe a few mouse traps behind the rack would be useful.