So how did your week start?

Sunday night I was at the computer when the cat ran in looking a bit wild eyed and disheveled.  She had something hanging out of her mouth and since she has a habit of swallowing bits of yarn whole, I made a grab to try and get it away from her. 
I missed. 

I always do, but I have to try, yarn not being so good for the digestive system.

While missing my grab it occurred to me that that is not a yarn color I use a lot - too much of a neutral - and in fact it looked a bit smooth and...was moving.  Only then did I realize that she had a mouse  - in my defense it took this long because she had the entire thing, whiskers and all, in her mouth, leaving only the tail exposed.   Once she knew I knew - she very kindly likes to share with me - she ran back upstairs.

I followed to find that she had released her toy and was stalking it around the living room.  At this exact moment the mouse - which was tiny - cowered under the treadle of the Majacraft and the cat lurked on the other side of the wheel.  I know this is all very organic and circle of life and all, but I have trouble watching Miss Kitty play with her food, and so I grabbed a glass from the table and scooped the wee beastie up when he made a run for it.  Which left me with a terrified animal in a drinking glass and a bitchy, complaining one underfoot. 
My life is exciting, yes?

On the way to the back door I thought - I should blog this.  Because that's the kind of freak I am, people.  I started to pick up the camera - I mean, I can't blog this without a picture of a mouse so tiny he can't jump out of the cup in my hand, right?
But someone - I was on the phone this whole time, did I mention that bit? - said I couldn't take a picture of the mouse in the cup, it was creepy and wrong, so I released it undocumented (and slightly damp as he'd been sitting in a few drops of iced tea), and boy am I sorry now.  I mean, really.

(unrelated Toronto picture for visual interest)

And then I went to call and find out if I needed to report to jury duty the next morning, as instructed by the state.  My number was not up yet, so Monday morning it was off to work with me. 
Only to discover the office fridge appeared to have died over the weekend and had defrosted all over the floor and also?  Was dead.   And something didn't smell so good.

So I went to Sears, but they weren't open yet -  I would think they would have opened by then, wouldn't you? And I couldn't wait and anyway by then I realized I could probably get a fridge delivered  from the office supply people - I love them THIS BIG, the office supply people - which is why I was at the deli buying a (cold) Snapple while some morning program played on the wall TV.  Barry Manilow was playing Copacabana, which is a song I love un-repentantly.  So I watched and enjoyed the ladies in the street in New York, who were getting all the way down with it, if you know what I mean.

(another unrelated Toronto picture for visual interest)

Mr. Manilow really needs to lay off the botox, I'll tell you that.  He's all tan and highlighted so his whole person is the same kind of fig newton-y (the newton part, not the fig part) biscuit color and the only part of his face that moved was his lips.  His eyes too, but the lids around them were immobile, so he looked impossibly shifty instead of like a groovy hep cat, which is what closer to what I think he was aiming for.

Now that was creepy.

Comments

[Diane]

Not only do the cats bring me "presents", but sometimes the dog does too. Thank goodness there's a field next door that I can toss the little carcasses out.

[lanea]

Go Moxie! Kill vermin.

I know, that's an unpopular sentiment. I always root for the fox, and the wolf, and the cougar. Always.

[Holly]

Barry Manilow looked like he had cheek implants to me. A little ridiculous, but he sounded good.

[kmkat]

Google for a picture of Keith Richards (like this one, for example: http://www.globalpov.com/archives/2007/04/start_me_up.php)
and compare that to Barry Manilow. Hard to say which is worse, really.

[David]

You absolutely should have taken pics of the wee mouse. That wouldn't have been a mean thing to do.

Good luck with future hunting incidents.

[Laurie]

I love the last Toronto photo.

Faces get like that with too many lifts, also. Too tight, which is almost inevitable after the first big one.

Blogfodder gets away from us. Sometimes, you have to listen to the opposing voices.

[BigAlice]

ah, lucky you, that the mouse held still so you could grab it. It took an HOUR of "chase the mouse around the room" before we manage to capture it in a box and release it outside. Thankfully Frances the cat has not brought any more little grey bundles inside.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds Barry's appearance a little creepy. He was doing some kind of tour last year and there was a BIG, BIG poster of him on the side of some building on my way to work. And his coloring was... abnormal. I had hoped it was just the poster ink.

[Terri]

When our neighbor mowed hay, we had a couple of mice, but the capture involved beer. Here's the story if you want to look http://wvknitter.blogspot.com/2007/07/eeeeeeeek.html

[Phil Boncer]

Count your blessings it's just mice. I've had several hunters.

Eliza gets rats, gophers, and small rabbits, and tends to hide the bodies (except for the time she was mad at us and left a rabbit head at the kitchen entrance. Just the head.)

Valentino was adopted off the street, and was an accomplished birder. More than once I came home to large amounts of blood and feathers in the hallway, as he'd brought in and messily eaten a fullgrown pigeon, dove, or bluejay. He also nearly pulled out all the cables on my computer once, trying to recapture a quail he'd brought in and inadvertently released in the house, who was hiding behind my desk.

'Tis the cycle of life.

PhilB

[Constantina]

I have to ask what the last unrelated Toronto pic is really of. It has me wondering if y'all are infested with some kind of giant spiders?

[Lene]

A blog is for documenting your life, right? So I'm creepy and wrong - I totally would've taken a picture of the mouse in teh cup.

And yeah, Barry needs to wean off the Botox. Have you noticed how he sort of lisps/tries to keep the saliva in his mouth? Dude, you know you're too tight when your mouth has trouble moving...

[Anne]

Mom always used to catch the mice in saucepans and take them out to the end of the pasture and let them go. (Dad used to say they bead her back in.)

[anne]

hahaha! i'm kinda still back at the part where you scooped up the mouse real quick in the glass . . man i'm impressed. and on the phone at that. sheesh.
and ya gotta love barry, no matter what shape he's in.

[Kristy]

I had a squirrel loose in my house once, and I caught it under a trashcan. I wish I had been blogging back then, because it was a good story.

[Amy]

How the heck did you catch a mouse? When I was in the dorms we asked for a desk for the study lounge, and they promptly delivered us one they'd been keeping in a barn. They neglected to check inside, however, and the top drawer was filled with a nest of baby mice. I could not catch those quick devils for the life of me! I'd have been happy to put them outside if I'd have been quick enough!

[Emily]

Lol...how the hell is it creepy and and wrong?? You were *rescuing* it. Surely that's worth some front page covereage? It's not like it was bloody and mangled, right? Just spitty. And tea-y. Snort.

[JoVE]

I just read Mel's comment and it reminded me of friends of mine who wondered about a smell. Finally they pulled the stove out to see if something was behind there and there was a dead mouse underneath which had been baked several times. Yuck.

My cats do all the playing outside and leave the mice/birds/baby chipmunks out there (dead or alive).

[Dr. Steph]

I would have liked to see that mouse picture. Little furry bastards. We've been dealing with an infestation next door for months now and the only mice I like to see are dead ones.

Your cat is always welcome to visit--as are you.

Sorry about your fridge. Love the art photo--I get my haircut right next door to that parkette.

[Dr. Steph]

I would have liked to see that mouse picture. Little furry bastards. We've been dealing with an infestation next door for months now and the only mice I like to see are dead ones.

Your cat is always welcome to visit--as are you.

Sorry about your fridge. Love the art photo--I get my haircut right next door to that parkette.

[Vicki]

Have you seen Kenny Rogers lately? I hate to think what these people are going to look like in another however-many years -- they sure don't look like themselves!

My cats never catch the mice that are inside the house.

[seizuresalad]

I snake-sat once for a friend, and had to supply whole, live, baby mice (shudder) for its repast. When snakey wasn't particularly hungry he would toy with the poor little things and kinda half-eat them. I once rescued one out of the aquarium and tried to revive it to no avail. Hateful. (Not that I'm opposed to all of that food chain stuff happening in nature, just not in my living room).

[regina]

What Claudia said!

As to manilow, I agree with you wholeheartedly. He looks like he's ready to join Siegfried and Roy's act. Eesh.

[Melanie]

Frighteningly cute, mice. (I know, because we have white-footed deer mice and they're like the disneyfied version, with the cuteness turned to eleven.) Whenever the cat removes a mouse from the ranks of the living we shower him with treats. We figure positive reinforcement is good, right?

Barry Manilow just makes me want to go watch Foul Play--I mean, music by Manilow AND Goldie Hawn AND Chevy Chase AND Dudley Moore. I can almost feel the polyester.

[Gina]

At least your kitty is a bit sporting. Snickers would generally bring the decapitated body of her latest catch as a "gift". Nothing like starting off a Monday morning with the sight of a headless, disemboweled rabbit.

[Kat with a K]

I was tempted to take/blog a picture of the first mouse my kitten killed, but I realized my readers probably wouldn't want to see it. Hope your week improves from here!