Worthless Cats and Empty Traps

Part I

Friday night was going to be special. For the first time, both children were sleeping in the same room. We stayed up late watching a movie, went down to our room, and were amazed by the fact that we could actually walk around our room and get ready for bed without tiptoeing by the crib.

We hit the bathroom to do the usual. And one of our cats just sat there and stared at the corner.

Now, any of you who have pets know that when your dog or cat just stares at a spot, something is up. And it is usually not something good. Especially when it is 1.30 in the morning and all you want to do is crawl into bed.

We have had a lot of spiders in the house lately. Pretty typical for up here. So I figured it was just that. She was watching a little creepy-crawly make his way up the cabinets.

So I sat down, to um, begin the evening ritual. As I talked to my husband about the probable spider, out popped a mouse from under the drawer.

It was just a baby little thing. Maybe a teenager. But he looked around, looked at the cat, and scampered back up under the cabinetry.

And the cat. She sat there. Just looked at the spot where the mouse had gone. Didn't even attempt to chase him. Unbelievable. So much for our comfort threshold in thinking she could fend for herself if she ever got outside.

So NOW what? We don't want to kill it, we don't want the cats to kill it. Though at this point that does not seem to be much of a danger.

We come up with the brilliant idea that we will throw a box over it when he comes out so we can release him outside. Yes, I know that you are supposed to take them like a mile away so they don't come right back. But how in the hell are we going to get a baby mouse in a car and drive him out into the woods? He's just going to sit next to me on the seat? Whatever, dude.

And when I say we are going to throw a box over him, I mean my husband. I totally pulled the you are the man so you deal with this attitude. So poor hubbie spends the next hour locked in the bathroom. The cats have their whiskers pressed to the bottoms of the doors trying to watch what was going on, and I just sat on the bed and laughed.

It became painfully apparent that our plan was not going to work. Desperately needing sleep, we decided that we may not be able to catch the little guy but he sure as shit was not going anywhere. We accomplished this by locking the cats in the bathroom for the night. Their food and litter box were in there, anyway. We figured that they would not hurt it because they are obviously too stupid. The mouse did not know that, though. If nothing else, the mouse would not bother to enter a bathroom with two cats in there.

So, this is the build-up to my Wordless Wednesday picture for tomorrow. Part II is the story of the trap we built for the mouse and the result of that. Part III will be the story of the oogie mousie.