Taexalia

wild.life

Of Mouse and Woman

So I'm sitting writing my Morning Pages in my bed and two or three times I think I see movement out of the corner of my eye. Every time I look across to the doorway there's nothing there, but I say good morning to the ghost cat :)

Something catches my eye again and as I look up a small dark beastie looks back then darts away up the hall!!

I jump out of bed and run after it but there's nothing there.

I send Allan a text "there's a moose loose aboot this hoose" and he replies "where?"

My sense of humour is intact and I am typing him a suitably dry response when he phones me. He goes through all these scenarios - like getting a cat when we come back from Denmark (me - "but Denmark is JUNE the mouse is here NOW") and "what's really odd is that you usually see *evidence* first" (me - "so a whole mouse dancing a jig in the hall whilst I write doesn't count as evidence?")

Mostly we are amused, philosophical about the fact it probably found access since our building and our flat has had a lot of *work* (disruption) in the last few months.

When I go to make coffee I find *evidence* - it appears that moose is using the hole in the counter where the new boiler pipes went down - I get a little sweary because I know that if the bloke who is replacing our kitchen was here, you know, closer to MY timetable of life - then there wouldn't be a bloody hole.

Then I apologise to mouse if it is listening.

So I've cleaned up the kitchen counter and everywhere else really - and there's no sign of it getting into any of our food. Then I go to the loo and when I come out the moose is sitting on top of the microwave twitching it's huge, very cute ears. Bold as brass!

So I figure this moose can only have arrived in the last 24 hours because I would have seen it (and the *evidence*) before now. Has it heard me conversing with Crow and tuned in to my Doolittle tendencies?

I have to explain - ever since the Kit Kat advert with the moth and the lightbulb I am traumatised when a moth gets stuck inside and I clamber around with a glass jar until I catch it and take it outside. Fair doos - it's usually back through the window within the hour. I carry spiders outside - and if I ever get a good enough picture of the house tarantula we re-home every September you will be in awe of my fearlessness - those things can RUN!

Now, moths, spiders, the odd beetle and even lady caterpillar are one thing, but a Mouse is a whole different kettle of fish. There is no way I can even contemplate murder - but before I've even acquired a humane live-catch trap I'm running a drama in my head... "What if I find a nest?" or "What if I catch the mouse and take it to the park and there is a nest somewhere with starving baby meeces?" Can I interfere with nature in this way?

You can imagine - my Inner Drama Queen is having a ball!

I have written a note and stuck it on the fridge - "Dear Mouse please find somewhere else to live before the new cat arrives." I assume it is only intelligent and can't read minds as well.

Mouse Medicine teaches about attention to detail - am I paying attention to the small details? Am I paying too much attention and missing the bigger picture? Mouse teaches about progress in small steps, of being organised. Mouse also teaches about destruction...

So little lady, thanks for the visit - if I promise to be tidy at all times will you find somewhere else to live?

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Posted on May 2, 2007 in Mammals, Storytelling, Wildlife, Wordy.

2 Responses to “Of Mouse and Woman”

  1. Misssymartin says:
    May 3, 2007 at 8:25 am

    When the cat does arrive you’ll know when it has caught the mouse. You will not find a dead mouse. You will find a pair of little feet. Mice are tasty but mice feet, apparently (according to my three mogs) are NOT.

  2. tammy vitale says:
    May 4, 2007 at 1:22 pm

    What a lovely piece of writing! and a great story to boot – we had mice one year. Multiples. We had not 1 but 3 human traps going at the same time. We finally found how they were getting in, filled it in and have had no problem since, but that was an interesting several months. We had to keep an eye on the traps because we didn’t want them to die in the trap. Then a pregnant momma wound up in a trap and we put the whole thing out in the back and she abandoned the babies. =[ Sad but true.

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