The Great White Mouse

[original0143]

P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"Ok. I am sitting here at my computer, Megan laying beside me, Mom in the chair, Dad, upstairs.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]All the lights are off as we are watching a movie, aside I'm playing poker.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]I feel something touch my shoulder.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]I turn to look and see a small mouse perched not 2 inches from my nose.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]I look into his beady, black eyes and laugh.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]The small vermin scampers down the back of the couch.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]I calmly inform Megan she may want to get off the couch as I have just had a mouse perched upon my shoulder. Mom yells for Dad and he brings in Dill.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]The epic battle has begun.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]After a short struggle, Dill captures the mouse in her mouth and runs out of the room.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Peace has been restored, or so we thought.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"[/color]P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"[/color]In the distance, we hear Dad's cry, "Dill! Dill!" Dill runs back into the living room, mouse in her mouth.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]She sets the rodent free and it sprints behind the TV.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Dad moves the TV and the wounded but resilient pest flutters across Dad's unexpecting feet.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]With a girlish scream, our once proud and manly father jumps back with his fight or flight response clearly seeking the latter route.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]The mouse makes his way to the register and vanishes into the duct work.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Finally, all is well, or so we thought.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"[/color]P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"[/color]Dad decides to bring in the strong armed, wilyoutdoor catto relieve the weak house cat.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Bob is on the scent instantaneously following near exactly the path of the mouse's earlier escapades.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Bob's effort is futile as the mouse is nowhere to be found.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]30 minutes later. "Squeak Squeak" He is back.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Still under the register but in view to be sure.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Dad removes the vent cover.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Bob and Dill are dumbfounded.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]They are blind to the mouse at which Dad and I are sointensely staring.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Dad draws attention to the target by nudging the small creature with a flyswatter.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Alas, Bob is interested.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]He grabs the mouse and holds it under paw.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]After what seemed an eternity, he grasps the mouse in his jaws and Dad reaches down to pick Bob up and take him outside for closure on the night's events.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]His attempt is foiled as Bob immediately drops the mouse as Dill had done earlier.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Back to the relative haven of the TV set, the mouse does flee.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]Dad has seen enough.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]The next view of the rodent would be his last as he hammers the cunning field mouse with the business end of the flyswatter and dead he was.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes" [/color]P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"[/color]P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"[/color]Thus ending the epic battle between the worst cats in the world and the great white mouse.

[Anita]

Hmmm. A feral cat, relying only on itself for food probably would have disposed of that mouse in seconds. Our pampered house kitties, who get their food from us, barely know what a mouse is. Even outdoor cats know that the occasional mouse or bird that they catch is merely a dietary suppliment. They know where the real food comes from!

Next time, if the cats (Bob in particular) catches a mouse, let him dispose of it as he pleases. Don't pick him up to take him outdoors. It'll only take a few minutes to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, get some traps.

Poor cute little white mouse! I would have been tempted to clean him up, find a cage, and keep him as a pet. However, good sense would have prevailed, and I would have put him in a sack, and taken him out into the wild. I can't bring myself to kill anything.

[armstrong26491]

well, my dad's a pest control officer, so he kills mice, rats, bees, wasps, pidgeons, ants, cockroaches, mink, squirrels and more every day for a living. So i've been brought up with a distinct lack of sympathy for pests. i would hav voted to have the cats and the mouse in a cage together, but as u've said how dumb they are then it would be more convenient to get the shotgun.