What just crawled in my mouth and died?!

If you're a fan of fishing (especially catfish) then perhaps you've heard of Catfish Charlie. It's a type of bait used for catfish that comes in little red, doughy balls. And it smells like death! My husband bought two packages years ago and brought them home before a fishing trip. One of those packages - though opened - didn't get used, got tossed into the back of our pantry, and forgotten about. Trouble is, we have a 110 lb. bloodhound named Moonshine who didn't forget about the Catfish Charlie. Elephants never forget....and we've since learned that Moo's don't either.

Poor Moo's nose kept luring her near our pantry for weeks. We'd find her pawing at the bi-fold pantry doors with her neck craned and head glued to the floor trying to catch the scent of deliciousness wafting from beneath. I assumed her goal was peanut butter - a global weakness for pups, but especially a pup with a pro sniffer like her. So I moved it to a higher shelf. Why was this necessary, you may ask? That's because we had come home months before to find the pantry doors cracked open and a JIF jar with lid and peanut butter MIA. We still haven't figured out how something with non-opposable thumbs managed to get the lid off the jar, let alone get the bi-fold doors open, locate her desired snack and remove it from the shelf. My husband thinks she secretly knows how to use his tools. I personally think she's a Houdini. Either way somehow she figured it out and the evidence was all over her paws and face. Check out Moo in action with peanut butter:

I promise I'm getting to my point.......I came home from work one afternoon, opened the door and was slapped in the face with some serious foulness. The pantry was open again, this time with the Catfish Charlie bag in shreds, and red giblets of smelly dough smashed into the kitchen tiles. It was wretched, with an emphasis on wretch. Our whole house smelled like Catfish Charlie. It took 2 hours of cleaning and mopping, plus a whole can of Febreze to get things to a tolerable level, not to mention the time I spent trying to scrub the stuff out of Moo's fur and brushing her teeth. No amount of shampoo and toothpaste could eliminate that rotting flesh smell. Her breath smelled like death for DAYS.

Meet the culprits!

Suspect #1 - Moonshine

Suspect #2 - Catfish Charlie

And here's how years later, this all ties to the growing lump in my uterus........since week 6, I have been left with a horrible taste in my mouth all the time. It tastes like something crawled in my mouth and died! It tastes like Catfish Charlie - or at least what I imagine it would taste like. My husband insists that my breath doesn't smell like Moonshine's did, which is a great relief. I'm glad to know I'm not single-handedly burning the nose hairs of everyone around me. But this reassurance does nothing to kill the taste.

The only time it backs off is the first 10 minutes or so after brushing my teeth, which I do - A LOT. And for some unknown reason, pregnant women all over will tell you that brushing their teeth is risky business. It doesn't matter if you're delicately brushing your canines in that prescribed circular motion or scrubbing the back of your tongue like you mean business, YOU ARE GOING TO GAG! So it's a delightful vicious cycle of barfing and brushing.

And Charlie still comes back.