The Great Mouse Hunt...

The prey...

The tracker... The hunters...

The must have fashion of mouse hunters... (Thanks Mom!)



The story...


So Sunday night we were over at my parents' house to eat dinner with them. My dad was telling us that he thought he had been hearing a mouse somewhere in the house during the week while my mom was at the hospital. We had even seen clues that there must be a mouse lurking, food bags chewed open, but didn't think to much more of about it. All of a sudden, we heard Betsy doing her low 'ruff' that she usually does when she has found where we have hidden her favorite ball. We realized she was in the bedroom behind the kitchen that is used as a storage room. Justin got up to look what she had found, and my dad teased him that was probably the big mouse that had been in there last week.


So surprise, surprise, as Justin looked behind a table leaf that was stored in there, there WAS a mouse! A quite large one at that! It was nesting back in there, and Betsy had indeed found its scent and tracked it in there! So we all came to take a look, and then we jumped into action, finding the appropriate mouse hunting tools--a coffee carafe for me, and a hammer and a tall glass cannister with a top for my dad. (PETA and extreme animal lovers: this hammer was not for killing purposes or even harming purposes, but for gentle shoving into container purposes...fyi) Justin moved the leaf, and the mouse scurried into the fairly small bathroom that is in that room.


Then the fun really began! My dad and I headed into the bathroom after it, and closed the door so it couldn't escape, and spent the next 10 minutes crashing into walls, jumping away from the scurrying mouse, hopping up on the bathtub, and laughing hysterically!!! I don't think I've ever seen my dad, bad knees and all, jump so high or spin around so quickly!!! My tough Daddy was on a mission, to get that mouse into the container. But, when that mouse ran towards his slippered feet, he was sure that that mouse was coming to chew on his toes! He would jump, the mouse would run, and I would die laughing!!! Finally, after much cajoling, teamwork, and angling our "weapons" just right, the mouse made it into the cannister, and we got the top on tight! Poor Justin was standing right outside the door with another mouse catching contraption ready, just in case the mouse ran out, but we finally succeded at our hunt and came out with our prize.


We came out laughing just as hard as we were inside, and, of course, I had to reenact my dad's "mouse jumping" for my mom and Justin! I don't think I've ever seen my dad move that quickly or jump that high! Oh if only I had the video camera!!!


As you can tell, we are definitely city-folk. All it takes is one little (well--it was actually pretty big) mouse to get us all excited! And of course, we had to take pictures for the blog! The mouse is going to go live outside, far far away, and hopefully, Betsy won't have to be a mouse tracker ever again! What a fun night!!!