Tiny

This is Tiny.

When I moved into my new flat last August we were getting overexcited and running around the rooms when I found a weird brown hairy maggoty thing on the carpet. Totally gross, but when I looked harder at the room, the whole floor was moving with these disgusting bugs. When we looked even harder we found them in the wardrobes, in the chest of drawers and even under the mattresses. They were in the kitchen, under the lino and the fridge, crawling about on the window ledges and so were their beetle parents. The entire flat was infested with carpet beetles.

So we went to the agency that rent us the flat and flailed about and told them we weren't going to take the flat unless they fumigated it and replaced all the carpets. Which to their credit they did the same day! That got rid of them. I saw a couple of beetles crawling around in the kitchen in the month following but I'm happy to say none since.

However at the time I was wracked with an intense fear of these creeply crawlies. Usually I don't mind bugs but I really don't like hairy maggots in my pants. I couldn't sleep properly, I kept having nightmares that giant carpet beetles were eating me or crawling out of my mouth.

So two days after the flat had been fumigated I sat down and started making something to get my mind of the horrible bugs, and Tiny was born. True to his namesake, he's Tiny! About 4 inches high and very skinny. He has long whiskers to help him find those bugs in the dark, a beak to crunch them down with and a rag soaked in cider wood oil to ward them off wherever he goes. He lives next to my bed and ever since he joined the troupe my dreams have been carpet beetle free!

And that's the story of Tiny, the carpet beetle eating gryphon!