Tuesday, December 6th - Mighty Mouse

Conditions at 5:15 am: overcast and 7' heading for a rainy high of 9' later

A couple of years ago someone sent me a video clip that I found most disturbing when it first started. It opened with the scene of a little mouse lying upside down in a mouse trap, with the metal bar across it's neck. As it lay there looking very dead, the strains of "The End" by the Doors played in the background. After a few seconds of this the music slowly changed to the music from the movie Rocky. Ever so slowly the little mouses front paws came up and grasped the bar and with much effort, the bar was lifted, then as the music gained momentum so did the mouse, to the point where it was doing bench presses with the mouse trap. Turns out it was an ad for some kind of cheese. Well, I think I've met that mouse. (Bernie, this is where you can stop reading so you won't think I'm a total lunatic!)

Sunday evening I set out two mouse traps - one in the kitchen and one in the sun porch.When I got up yesterday morning (Monday) there was a dead mouse in the kitchen trap. So I went out to the porch to check that one and it indeed had a mouse, but it was still alive. It's little feet were moving and I could see it breathing. I found this a little disturbing as it's head was crushed in the trap. What to do? I decided I'd just leave it there for a while because surely it would die shortly. This was at 5:15 am. I checked it a couple of times as I was getting ready for work and no change. by the time I was almost  ready to leave for work, at 6:50, I checked again and it was still breathing. What to do? I couldn't leave it there. I just thought this poor thing needs to be let out of the trap. I assumed there would be major trauma to the head as it was squished inside this trap for who knows how long but I decided it could die in dignity somewhere else. Don't ask my what my reasoning was but I put it in the bathtub and opened the trap. Well, to my surprise it got up, ran around in  a circle and then sat in the corner and started grooming itself. I was totally shocked. So I did the only thing I could do. I got a little dish and put some multigrain cereal in it and another with water. Then I put a little piece of material in the bottom of the tub so it would have something soft to sit on. (I know, I know, I can see the eyes rolling now). I thought there was probably some sort of internal damage and it wouldn't last the day. Well much to my surprise when I got home it was still quite fine. It ran around a bit when I approached and then it let me pet it lightly on the back. What to do now? So my plan was to take it with me this morning and let it go outside but down the road in a wooded area so it can find a place to nest for the winter. I just felt that any little beast that survived being in the trap for so long deserved to live.
Now the twist. When I got up this morning and went into the bathroom to check on the mouse, it's gone. Apparently the food I gave it provided enough strength that it was able to jump out of the tub and is now gone. I'm really hoping it's experience was terrifying enough that it vacates the house altogether. The next time it won't be so lucky. I threw out the defective trap but the one that is still set works much better.
Run little mouse, run, as far and as fast as you can!

Yesterday was a tough day as my friend was on my mind most of the day. Brenda called me mid day to see how I was and then showed up at my door last night. I had finished eating supper and was finally putting decorations on my tree that's been standing naked since I put it up on Friday night. So we had a glass of wine and put stuff on the tree then sat on the couch and solved all the problems of the world (or at least those that occurred to us last night). I felt much better when she left, so much so that I moved a few things around in my living room so it's a little better than it was. I have way too much stuff in there but it will work  now for Christmas. Tonight I think I'll tackle the piles of magazines and stuff that are on the kitchen counter that seems to catch everything. It's a bad habit I need to get out of - just dropping everything there. Then I may work some more on my Christmas cards. The cards themselves are done but I still need to write on them and do the envelopes. I'm working on setting up a data base with the names and addresses and then doing a mail merge so I can hopefully print them. I just need to play with that a bit to see if I can get this odd size of envelope to print properly. (Or I can just hand write them on Saturday at work).