Mouse Hunt...

I know that my niece doesn't like to be mentioned here, but, I cannot NOT share this with the world. A couple days ago, we saw Chris clawing the back of the sofa and were thinking that she was acting up. It wasn't until yesterday that we realized that Chris was actually hunting a mouse that had gotten under the slip cover on the sofa.

The first indication that something was amiss came yesterday when we saw Daisy sitting in Chris' kitty condo looking up at the ceiling. I was thinking that it was an insect of some sort that was flying around the top of the front window. I moved the screen and the curtain a little bit and I couldn't see anything. But, Daisy was sure it was there. She tried to reach up the wall to grab it, but, it was too high up. I got up on the end table and prepared to pull the curtain down entirely, when Mom screamed and said that she saw something that looked like a mouse jump down from the top of the window.

The kitties saw something and immediately went into the corner of the living room. Meanwhile, Mom went upstairs. I began moving the furniture to give the kitties better access to the mouse, but, the mouse proved elusive. At one point, I knew the mouse was under the sofa, so, I propped one end of the sofa up on the coffee table, so, the kitties could get underneath. The mouse seemed to disappear and I noticed Daisy taking an interest in the back of the sofa, so, I pulled off the slip cover and caught a glimpse of the mouse crawling along the back of the sofa. The mouse jumped off the sofa and headed for the TV stand. The two kitties pounced. At one point, Daisy had the mouse in her mouth and let it go. Then, Chris had the mouse in her mouth and likewise let it go. My two kitties proved to be utterly useless in their role as defenders of the realm.

This situation lasted for most of the afternoon. My niece stopped by after work to help. With two people downstairs, Mom felt it was safe enough to come downstairs. And, since Mom was still nervous, she decided that it would be a good time to bake some cookies. Meanwhile, the mouse continued to evade capture. At one point it crawled up inside the mechanism for Mom's recliner and promptly disappeared from view. After a while, with no mouse in sight and the prospect of catching the mouse last night fading, my niece decided to have a quick cat nap and kicked off her shoes and curled up on the sofa.

Late in the day, and still with no sign of the mouse, my niece ended her nap, packed up her belongings and headed home. She wasn't gone very long, when I got a frantic phone call from her. Apparently, the mouse had taken refuge inside her shoe and she had carried it in her shoe to the car. I'm still not sure how she didn't feel it in her shoe. But, in any event, I went out in last night's drizzle to my niece's car. I brought her house slippers and she had me remove the now squashed mouse from her car along with her shoes and socks. I stuffed all of these items in a plastic bag and ended up tossing them unceremoniously into our back yard. Mom talked to my niece on the phone and we had a good laugh at her expense. My niece took one for the team and I owe her a pair of shoes and socks and a replacement pair of house slippers for when she comes to visit.