Mouse In The House

We had a mouse in the house. I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later, beings behind our backyard is a small hill and past that is the country. I'm just surprised that it took almost 2 years. If it was really quiet inside we could hear it playing with a water bottle cap under the stove. As long as he didn't get into any of our food, I wasn't too worried about it. I knew we would catch it eventually.

It was the boys first day back at school and I wanted to surprise them with breakfast. See I'm not a morning person, so I don't normally (ever) make them breakfast before school. So I go into the living room and open the blinds on the front window. I then turn and go to open the blinds behind the dining room table. As I do this I am mentally taking note of what I see on the floor. Makai's new vacuum, Coco's (our new Mini Pincher) toys, Cali (our cat), sitting next to her toy mouse. Wait. Toy mouse? I don't remember buying her one of those.

And then it dawns on me. Oh Crap! She caught the mouse!

So I have this moment of panic, like what do I do? I think it is dead, so the smart thing to do would be to get something to pick it up with so I can throw it in the trash. And then Cali takes a swipe at it and it runs across the floor. I scream, of course and run into the kitchen to try to find something to trap it with. Nothing. I start to panic. I run into the play room and get the butterfly net, run back into the living room and throw it over the mouse. Cali is freaking out, trying to get at the mouse. "Parker" I yell. "Parker get up! I need help!" "Cali caught a mouse and I need you to find me the bug catcher" (a plastic tub that has a lid with air holes in it). So he comes out of the room and brings me the broken one with no lid.

I'm like "really Parker?" "I'm gonna put this live mouse in something without a lid?"

By this time the cat is frantically trying to get to the mouse and bumps the net and the mouse runs out, across my foot and runs behind the computer. I of course scream and run the opposite direction.

"Bubba!" "Bubba wake up! Cali caught a mouse and I need the bug catcher with the lid."

Cali picks the mouse up with her teeth, and carries it across the room and puts it on the floor.

Apparently she thinks that It is some kind of cool toy.

I trap it with the butterfly net again, when Bubba comes into the room with the bug catcher (it was in the garage on the dryer because a very large wolf spider was living in it for a while).

By this time Parker is freaking out. He doesn't want Cali (or me) to hurt it because he thinks it will make a really cute pet. I try to explain to him that field mice have diseases, and if he wants a mouse pet that we will have to go to the pet store and get one.

As I am attempting to get this mouse into the bug catcher (the boys are sitting on the floor watching) it gets loose again and runs toward Bubba and starts climbing up his pants leg. "Run Bubba,Run" I scream. Bubba gets up and runs and the mouse falls onto the floor where the cat, once again, grabs it in her mouth. She puts it on the floor where I throw the bug catcher over it. Now I just have to figure out how to get get it flipped over so I can close the lid, without letting the mouse loose. With some fin-dangling and the help of a board book (which is now in the trash), we get upright and close the lid. The boys are now trying to convince me that we should just give it a bath to wash the diseases off of it. I tell the boys that we can let it go in the field down the street after school, so it can be free and go find its family.

They boys never did get their breakfast.