I am going to begin this story by setting forth some facts:
1. Our neighborhood has mice. Our neighbor said he thought they were coming from our side yard because we have some dead weeds that we haven't cut down (we never see that side so we just don't notice or remember!) and I guess mice live in weeds. So I went over to the side and looked but I seriously doubt they are living there. Although there are a few tall weeds, the grass (dead grass actually) is short! On top of that, our smallest cat is an excellent mouser (as you will hear more about later). Needless-to-say, we have mice in our backyard.
2. Our cats love to catch and play with mice.
3. After our cats catch the mouse and toss it into the air a few times hoping it will somehow come back to life and play with them, they bring the limp rodent (still fully intact...no blood even!) to our doorstep and poudly present their trophy.
4. Will loves to sleep with the sliding glass door open (he wont even close the screen!!) in our bedroom so that he doesn't have to wake up several times in the middle of the night when the cats want in or out. Although I have told him many times that insects and mice can just tromp right in and greet us in bed, he will not accept this fact (or maybe he is just willing to take the risk so that he doesn't have to open the door for the cats).
Now, I may begin to tell of the saga that began at 3:00am last night (morning)...
I was awoken from a peaceful slumber when I heard my smallest cat, Cutie running around on my side of the bed and softly meowing. Sometimes she gets a little playful in the middle of the night so I didn't think much about it. When the racket persisted and her meowing grew louder I got up out of bed to use the restroom and check to see what was up. Thankfully, I am used to practically sleep walking to the bathroom...you will understand why in a second.
On my way back to bed, I turned on the closet light (so as not to disturb Will too much) to check out what was going on with Cutie. She sat still when the light came on and looked up at me with some very proud and "mouse"chievous eyes. I glanced at the sliding door....OPEN! My worst fears were confirmed when I slowly knelt down and peeked under my night stand. MOOOOOUSE!
Now, unlike most girly-girls, I didn't scream and jump onto the bed in one flying leap (although if I had turned on the light before I went to the bathroom I very likely would have wet my pants!). Oh no, I have had quite a few "trophy mouse" experiences, as I like to call them, so I was prepared. I stood my ground so that my precious and proud Cutie would not follow me onto the bed with her fresh mouse. Huge mouse might I add (good job, Cutie!).
Will started to rustle in bed and I quickly told him, "Cutie caught a mouse under my nightstand." Now, I don't know if the mouse actually came in through the door on its own and then Cutie caught it from within the bedroom or, if she brought it in to show us her kill of the night. Either way, there was a mouse in our bedroom! Yuck!
His response (half-asleep): "Good job, Cutie. Now come to bed Sweetie, we'll get it in the morning." IN THE MORNING?!!! At that point I walked over to the bed (2 steps) and told him again, "No, Will, there is a
mouse under my nightstand!" Once again, his response was, "I know, don't worry, we'll get it in the morning." He just
had to have been asleep (hence the ZZZZ's in the picture above).
When I informed him that I was not going to come back to bed until he got the mouse (hey, I'm pregnant and I'm a girl, I am
not going to touch a dead mouse!), he........immediately jumped out of bed to come save his princess! Yeah right, haha! He did get up though, and as he did, I jumped into bed. Safe!
As he rounded the corner to my side of the bed, I hurridly picked up my "propping pillow" from the ground next the the night stand. Bad move. Apparently the mouse was not fully dead and had managed to wiggle it's way under my extra pillow (anything is better than under the paw of a cat I suppose). So, as I picked up the pillow I saw the mouse roll and plop back onto the carpet. Instinctively I threw the pillow (at Will, haha) and jumped back on the bed.
Will giggled softly, picked up the giant mouse by the tail (commenting on what a good job Cutie had done on catching such a big one), threw it out onto the back porch and closed the sliding glass door after Cutie ran out to devour her midnight snack.
As we snuggled back into bed for the remainder of the night I reminded my dear husband that we cannot leave the door open at night because we will end up with mice living in our house. As usual, he stuck to his guns and assured me that we don't/wont have any mice in the house..."Not any live ones anyway!" YUCK!
The End
