Essays & Articles
A
Mouse in the House
The other night I went into the
kitchen to get a glass of water before going to bed. Our cat,
Spooky, was laying in front of the refrigerator, his black tail swishing
back and forth. I leaned down to pet him goodnight, when like a
flash he dashed across the kitchen floor, apparently seeing something I
had not. And in a manner of seconds, he was standing before me, a
kangaroo mouse in his mouth, the little critter’s fussy tipped tail
dangling precariously from our pet’s mouth.
Now, you have
to understand, Spooky is an indoor cat. He adopted us several
years ago, when he, a thin and thirsty feline was venturing down the
steps of our new (not yet finished) swimming pool for a drink of water.
(There were only several inches of water in the pool at the time). It
was the dead of summer, and in Arizona that means temperatures can get
into the 120’s.
Yet, it
wasn’t just a drink he was after, he wanted company. If we were having a
BBQ, he’d stay in our backyard, hanging out under our feet. Eventually
he moved indoors, refused to go back outside again, got fat (over 20
pounds) and had his front claws removed. (To those of you who think that
is cruel……it was either the claws or a return to the outdoors. The
little darling had a habit of sliding down our black Jeep, which was
parked in the garage, leaving a nasty trail of claw marks. Since
outside meant coyotes….we figured it was the best choice.)
Anyway……
Although
Spooky lived for the first year outside, I don’t believe he was much of
a hunter. Not only was he very thin when he was on his own, he
never seemed to have much of a killer instinct. I remember one
time (when he was still outdoors) when a bird hit the window and fell to
the patio, just feet away from the cat. We thought, “that poor
bird is a goner”. Fortunately for the bird, he cat didn’t seem
very interested.
And so, as
Spooky stood in the kitchen, with the tiny rodent in his mouth, I
wondered…how do I get the mouse outside? I didn’t have the option
of opening the door, because I couldn’t risk our cat going outside.
We simply have too many coyotes in our area, and without front claws,
our kitty could suddenly become the prey instead of the hunter.
For some
silly reason I decided to usher our cat (with mouse) to the garage.
Yet, apparently Spooky was of the catch and release persuasion, and let
the creature go. The mouse hurriedly scooted under the
refrigerator.
It was late,
I was sleepy, so I decided to deal with it in the morning. Not
wanting to have our cat re-catch his prize, and bring it to bed with us,
I went to our bedroom and closed the door behind me.
The next
morning, I asked my husband if he could go out and look for “mouse
parts”. When I was a child our outdoor cats would eat their prey,
leaving behind disgusting little, cleanly licked, body parts.
There was no
dead mouse (or parts) to greet us, yet now, Spooky was focusing on the
couch. We snatched up our cat, closed him in our bedroom, opened
the front door, and began moving the couch. Sure enough, the
little mouse was there. It seemed easy enough,… simply chase the
mouse out the open front door.
Yet, the
mouse had other ideas. Instead of making a quick left, and making
a hasty exit, he turned right, scampered across our tiled floor and
scooted under our bedroom door. To the very room where the cat was
waiting!! (Not the brightest mouse in the world.)
We now had
the cat and mouse under our bed. We didn’t hear a lot of commotion.
And whatever the cat and mouse were doing under the bed, it certainly
wasn’t frantic or frenzied. After a while the cat seemed
bored, and went out to the living room, and sat nonchalantly near the
entrance to the dining room. I asked him “What kind of a hunter
are you??? Where is the mouse?” At this point I wasn’t sure where
the critter had scampered off to.
After a while
the cat returned to under our bed, and my mother decided to have a look.
Sure enough, there was the cat, with the mouse once again in his mouth.
And again, he did a catch and release. (Spooky was definitely
enjoying this game).
My husband
used the broom to get the cat from under the bed, and I tossed him from
the bedroom, and shut the door. We opened the sliding door leading
to our patio, once again tempting the rodent with the freedom of the
great outdoors. I wasn’t about to let the mouse make the wrong
turn again, so I piled our bedspread near the base of the door leading
to the hallway.
The mouse was
behind the end table, between the bed and the wall with the sliding
door. Seemed like an easy thing to once and for all, chase him
outside. As I sat on the bed, I leaned back the end table, and
brushed the frightened mouse (I assumed he was frightened, yet I am
beginning to think he and the cat were messing with us) with the broom.
He scampered from the table, yet instead of taking the easy way out,
once again took the longer route, and headed for the folds of my
bedspread.
My husband
felt compelled to smack the mouse with the broom…smacking him into the
bedspread. I asked him to PLEASE not squish the mouse in our
bedspread….and yep…once again the mouse slipped under the door, leaving
us (and the freedom of the outdoors) for the room with the cat.
This time the
mouse dashed into the hall bathroom. And I am happy to say, it was
in this room that my husband was finally able to capture the creature.
Our cat had wandered into the other room, and failed to see us make the
catch, and then take the mouse outside. (The mouse was unscathed….not a
single puncture or bite mark).
When we left
for work, Spooky was sound asleep. The poor little guy was exhausted,
having spent the previous night hunting. Yet hours later he woke
up, returned to our bedroom, and sat beside the end table, certain his
“toy” was where he had last left it.