mice and music

Thursday evening we went to our local school's spring program. We have a few friends that have kids that go there, plus it's really funny to watch the tiny 1st graders singing at the top of their lungs.

The concert ran a bit long, as the music teacher was retiring and two-thirds of the program was honoring him. It was good, but after 2 hours I was happy to head home.

We get home and I put lunch leftovers away and I hear a bit of scuffle in the dining room. I think at first it's the cats chasing each other, then glance over to find Norman chasing a mouse around under the table. I scream and ran over to stand on a chair in the other room for awhile.

You have to understand I HATE mice. They totally creep me out. I grew up in the country, with dogs, cats, chickens, horses, skunks, rock chucks (aka marmots, or fat fatties as I call them) and mice. I could handle the skunks and rock chucks. But the mice always freaked me out. They would be in the chicken house, eating the chicken food, or in the dog house trying to stay warm. We had two huge metal trash cans with lids that were full of dog and chicken food. And my siblings didn't always get the lids on tight, and the mice would be in the can and jump around as you were reaching in to get food. They always startled me, and were quick little buggers, which I think is what bothers me about them.

Norman has brought mice into the house before, played with them a little bit, then eaten them. And he's always kept them downstairs. But this time I think he decided it was time to teach Oscar how to catch mice too. So after my climbing on a chair, lovely husband went to inspect. Then the cats chased the mouse into the kitchen, and they weren't totally paying attention, as they let the mouse run/slide right under the refridgerator (glad it wasn't the pantry right beside it!). Now I (and the cats) had no way of getting it out. I got a mouse trap w/ peanut butter and set it near the fridge. Oscar liked the pb, so set the trap off and it wasn't reset.

Yesterday morning I wandered around looking for mouse remains, but found nothing. I wondered if the mouse had escaped, or been eaten, or snuck into the fridge. The cats didn't seem to be camping around fridge anymore either. Just to be safe I set the mouse trap again last night.

This morning I woke to Norman throwing something clinky around in our room. In my still mostly sleeping state I glanced at him and thought he'd found an empty key chain and was throwing it around. Husband woke up and heard it and went to see what exactly was going on. The mouse had been caught in the trap, and Norman decided we needed to get it out of the trap for him to eat. He had hauled mouse, trap and all, upstairs (I would have liked to see that!) and was throwing it around. Husband gave Norman praise for bringing it to us, then disposed of it. (I have a wonderful husband that way - alert way faster than me and takes care of the dirty work.)

So, no more mouse, at least that I know of. Though in cleaning yesterday I did find evidence that a mouse had been in our house, which makes me wonder if we have more uninvited visitors. Think I'll have to set the trap again and see.