Eek! A Mouse!

My husband is a sales rep for Bathfitters, and his post is located inside the mall. That means, when the mall had extended holiday shopping hours, Hubby and his co-workers also had extended work hours. That means he had to work at 6 am one morning. That means he had to get up at 4:30 so he could leave the house at 5 to get to work by 6. That means I have to get up early with the kids and let the dog out and feed the cats.

So, one of those early mornings when I was walking around like a zombie in the dark, BC the cat pounced into the kitchen with a mouse! Eeek! A mouse! He let the mouse go and proceeded to play cat-and-mouse with the poor little thing.

Now I know it's what cats do, they play with their victims until it's dead and then either leave it and walk away, or if they are hungry, eat it. But I don't want to see the poor mouse suffer.

With Maisie the puppy getting curious, BC grabbed the mouse and ran off into the other room. I followed to keep an eye on the whereabouts of the mouse, but BC didn't like the audience and took the mouse and went into the living room. I decided to give him his space and busy myself in the kitchen.

Well, about 5 minutes later, here comes BC looking all frustrated. He is looking around and sniffing under the fridge, then the oven, the cabinets and behind the trash can. Oh dear. He lost the mouse! Just then, the girls woke up and I had hoped the mouse business would have been over with before they got out of bed. Now I had to tell them a mouse was on the loose in the house and to keep an eye out for it.

The girls took it as a challenge and grabbed flashlights and went on a mouse hunt! They searched everywhere-- under the couch, under the TV stand, behind the furniture, under, over and every place in between. That mouse was seriously gone. ugh!

I spent the rest of the day with my eyes on the floor, constantly searching for a brown body, hoping that I'd be the one to find it and not the girls.

Maisie found it! I have no idea where she found it, but later in the afternoon, she was seen with a mouse in her mouth! I chased her down and disposed of the mouse. That's the end of that!

Or so I thought.

Yesterday, walking by the fridge, I smelled something that you don't ever want to smell in your home. It smelled pretty strong and I knew, just knew, something was dead around there. Hubby was at work last night, so I waited until morning. If what I'm smelling is indeed a dead body, it's not going anywhere.

Hubby smelled it and agreed, something died. we pulled out the fridge and other than lots of dust bunnies and few fridge magnets and some papers, nothing. He took off the back, nothing. It had to be under the fridge. We emptied the fridge and he tilted it, and sure enough, I peek under and see the dead body of a mouse. Talk about stinky! We disposed of the body, cleaned up under there, vacuumed the coils and washed the floor. All before breakfast!

Now that better be the end of that!