Mouse Over

After spending a quiet morning upstairs in my studio, I came downstairs to feed the cat.  As I was walking past the living room door, something caught my eye in there.  Something small, sitting in the middle of the floor.  I did a double take.  I then shrieked for the cat, "Tasha, where the hell are you?!!!"

Cats are never anywhere to be found when one wants them, and this was an instance when she was really wanted, for sitting in the middle of the living room floor,bold as brass, was a mouse. 

Eek! Ugh! Yuck! 

I hate loathe and detest rodents. 

They fill me with terror, dread, and repulsion.

Especially if they are in my house.

Being desperate, I flung open the front door, which is near the living room, and left it open, then exited out the back door, thinking that perhaps the mouse would take the hint and leave through the open door for the green fields of freedom and non-shrieking humans.  After some time, I re-entered the house, because I basically had no alternative.  The coast seemed clear.  Only I soon found that  it wasn't!  As I traversed the living room I saw a grey shadow make a mad dash under a small wooden chest in the corner. 

Eek!  Ugh!  Yuck! turned into SCREAM SHRIEK BELLOW!!!!

For the rest of the day and until I went to bed, I had the radio blasting in the kitchen, the studio, and on the computer in the office.  I put on heavy-soled shoes and stomped as loudly as I could any time I walked through the house.  I was hesitant to go out and see if the local pharmacy had mouse traps as I was afraid the cat would go after the cheese or peanut butter in the trap and then I'd have a hurt feline to deal with.

Big quandary. 

After an uneasy night, spent with blankets barricading the space below my bedroom door, I stomped downstairs in the morning with the waste baskets to empty into the garbage bin for pick up. I forgot them  in the basement but fetched them later in the day, leaving them in a stack at the foot of the stairs next to the kitchen to take upstairs with me later on.  I decided a nice hot bath to relax my nerves would be a good idea, so carted the baskets up with me, distributing one to my studio, one to the bedroom, and the last one into the bathroom.  I ran the bath, thinking to myself that I should be safe enough from rodents in there.  While I was waiting for the tub to fill, I noticed that I hadn't completely emptied the garbage basket, having left a chunk of my recently trimmed hair in the bottom of it. 

Wait a minute...that's not my hair, it's MOUSE hair!!!

Yes, there in the bottom of the wastebasket was a small grey mouse.

I grabbed my sweater, threw it over the top of the basket and carted it, at arm's length, out into the back yard, far from the house, and set it down, then ran back to the house to fetch my camera.  When I got back, I gathered my courage, uncovered the basket, and snapped a couple of pictures for the blog.  The tiny creature was absolutely motionless, ready for its close-up.  I didn't want to get too close, though!

Now how and why was that mouse in the basket?!  

That basket could have easily ended up in my studio, beside my bed, or unobserved in the bathroom while I languished in the tub.  And  how fortunate  it was that I happened to notice something in the bottom of the basket before I stripped down for my bath!

What extraordinary measures the universe concocted to demonstrate that I am being looked after!

Unless it was a gift from the cat?!