The Year of the Mice

When we were cleaning out our shed Sunday afternoon we found a couple of boxes that had been invaded by  mice at one time.  And that reminded me of the "Year of the Mice" and our cat, Freedom.

We bought our house five years ago, and we inherited a pregnant cat when we moved in.  We kept her and all four of her babies until we finally found homes for them all except for one, Freedom, who is still here, ruling the roost as Queen; she takes nothing off of no one, especially the dogs!

Our neighbor on one side decided during the late summer of our second year in our house to tear down the storage shed in her back yard and immediately after that we started getting mice in our house.  She had once mentioned to me that she had mice in her shed, so I assumed they had decided to move in with us next door.

Well, first of all Thomas set lots of traps, then he crawled under the house to check out all of the duct work, made repairs, checked up in the attic, closets, behind appliances and so on, and basically made sure there were no access points that he could detect.  We caught a few mice in the traps and gave them (already deceased) to Freedom.  She was very appreciative.  Before I go on, let me say that Freedom prefers to be outside.  She only comes in occasionally, and although she is fed catfood daily she used to supplement by hunting.  I once watched her run up a tree after a squirrel, jump from the trunk of the tree when the squirrel leapt from a branch, turn a somersault and catch the squirrel in mid-air!

Well, one morning before I started working full time I got up, got Andrew off to school and then decided to go back to bed for a while, since my half-day kindergartner, Eler Beth, was still asleep.   I let Freedom in, thinking that she could sniff around and maybe find one particularly elusive mouse, and sure enough almost as soon as I had laid back down I heard her meowing.  The meow sounded muffled and not like her at all.  I stepped out of our bedroom and there she was at the end of the hall with a mouse hanging out of her mouth, her green eyes huge.

"Hey, Lady, did you know you have mice?"

Excitedly I said, "Oh Freedom, good girl, you caught it!"  I must have said it too excitedly because she promptly dropped it.  The poor mouse ran in circles for a few seconds, then Freedom calmly stepped on it and picked it back up,  holding it securely in her mouth.

"Well?  What do you want me to do with it?"

"Okay, Free, let's get it outside." 

I walked to the front door, forgetting that Freedom won't go out the front door, she'll only come in the front door (that's a story for another entry).  She started walking toward the kitchen.  I followed, mentally smacking myself in the forehead, "Duh! How could I be so stupid!  Sorry, Free."

Just as I passed by her in the kitchen, heading toward the utility room (which has the acceptable door for Her Majesty to pass through to go outside), she dropped the mouse again. 

The mouse and I both ran in circles for a few seconds before Freedom calmly once again picked it back up.  I swear she had a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"This is getting tiresome, Lady.  Amusing, but tiresome, nonetheless."

"You're telling me!"

I made it to the utility room door to the back yard, opened it, and Freedom stopped on the threshhold, looking up at me one more time.

"Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Oh no, by all means!  Enjoy!"

I watched through the kitchen window for a few minutes while she played with the poor mouse, then, picking it up she marched offwith it to some unknown destination. 

More Mouse Stories Later.