The Christmas Eve Mouse….
Well, it happened again this morning. This time at 6am- at least I got to sleep in!
Since we’ve been getting all this snow and below freezing temps, the field mice have become a bit more daring, and coming into the house. I think they’re getting into the water heater room which is really nice and warm, and thats where the cats nab them. We live at the edge of town, with open fields all around us, so I do expect some if this. Although I would have never guessed we had mice except for the occasional dead mouse body that shows up from time to time. There’s no other sign of them anywhere in the house. No holes in the bottom of the dog or cat food, no droppings, nothing.
At first Wendy (my cat) would kill them and leave them at the bottom of the stairs for me to find in the morning- which for me was perfect! I got in the habit of checking the floor below the last stair so that I wouldn’t step on a mouse body. Then I would kindly call back up the stairs to the love of my life to let him know Wendy had left us a gift, and he would sweetly come and gather up the poor small limp body and dispose of him (or her) in some way. I don’t ask questions. And Wendy was very clean about it too. No blood, no half eaten body, no mess- I loved it! My boyfriend, 11 yr old son and I would joke that maybe she just cricked their little necks and left them for dead- very stealth like-quick and clean!
Well, in the last 2-3 weeks, she’s decided it’s more fun to catch the mouse and bring them up to our bedroom, spit them out and chase them through the room, into the master bath, and back through the room. It’s quite a sound to wake up to a mouse chirping first thing in the morning.. but now I know immediately what’s going on when I hear that sound in my room. So then, picture if you will, my 2 cats AND my boyfriend chasing this little brown spot around the room at 5 or 6 am. Our dog gets excited because everyone else is up and excited and he just wants to be part of the fun, but he really has no idea what’s going on here. I don’t think he even sees the mice at all. Poor thing.
I don’t know why she has started bringing the mice upstairs. She does eventually kill it.. well, between her and my other cat Mo. (And for those of you who haven’t met Mo- he’s 20-25 lbs of a whole lot of lovin’. Mo does move quite quickly when it comes to chasing the mice, although all he’d really have to do is lay the mouse for a bit and suffocate it with his massive body. He’s a lot like Jabba the Hut.)
The cats want to play with the mouse first though. I swear the other day it seemed like Wendy and the mouse were walking side by side, holding hands and skipping together out the bedroom door. She’ll even have the mouse in her mouth and I’m thinking… ok here it goes… death- she gonna put the crunch on……but she’ll just spit it out and play with it some more. I mean really! And you wouldn’t believe what these little mouse guys can do. Ok, maybe you would. The first time she brought a mouse into the room, I had to tuck in the bed skirt and pick up the oversized comforter off the floor because the mouse was halfway up the bedding before he fell back onto the floor and scurried off-and guess who was on the bed? YEP-ME! No way was I staying ON the bed until this thing was caught! I hadnt really thought about the mouse getting on the bed.. but now it was a very real possibility and I didn’t want to be trapped!
She does eventually kill it, and she’ll bring it back into the room, lay it on the floor at her feet, she’s given her praises, and then she’ll walk away.
So twice this week, this is how I’ve woken up. Monday is was at 5am, and then this morning at 6am. And the time before that is was 5 am again. I’m not sure how to get her to keep these things downstairs, and not bring them up into our bedroom, but it doesnt look like she’s interested in changing this arrangement anytime soon, and she seems to like getting everyone in the house involved- like a game for the whole family. Right now, the mouse from this morning is in under the cabinet in the master bath and Wendy is on watch,… but guess who’s not taking a shower in that bathroom until its gone? I’m not at all interested in having a mouse run across my bare feet.. ick!
I thought I would share my story of the Christmas Eve Mouse. I hope you enjoyed!
