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

[claudia]

Especially good writers really don't need mouse pictures.

[tsocktsarina]

(Forgot. No pointy brackets in comments. That should have read:)

"...the newton part, not the fig part..."

SNORT!

[tsocktsarina]

"...the newton part, not the fig part..."

[Spinning Fishwife]

Don't worry about having not taken a picture. There will be more opportunities, now she's got the hang of how to catch them. I blogged about the first unfortunate rodent my cats brought in, but now it's not a question of "is there?" when I get up in the morning, but "how many?" when it comes to bits of small bird/animal scattered down the hallway.

[Kris]

When I was a kid, my sister had an old, glass milk bottle that was lying on the floor of her room. The house was older and prone to get mice in the fall. That particular time, our cats had cornered a mouse in the milk bottle and were making the most god awful noise (I believe the technical term would be caterwauling...). Poor little mousey was simultaneously having a heart attack and a panic attack. A seriously poor choice for a hiding spot. The sound of the cats prompted Dad to investigate. We still laugh about that story to this day. Yes we lead sad, sad lives.

[Michelle]

Wait, is this her FIRST mouse? Because that is indeed a momentous occasion, and she should be treated very specially. More than usual. I don't think indoor cats tend to go for the kill much, because they don't have to live on their kill and no older parental-figure cat ever showed them how.

[Tina M.]

How fabulously random! See, me, I would have taken the picture. Call it evidence of your fearlessness when faced with rodentude, or sheer oddness, but I totally would have taken that pic. It's not often you're faced with the opportunity, and damn, those things are cute. All tail and shiny black button eyes.

I hear your Manilow and raise you one American Goldie Hawn. Seriously creepy.

[Marcy]

What? No sound effects as she brought you her prize? I always know when my hunter girl is bringing me a mouse by the wild and primitive sound effects issuing from her--or rather trying to issue from her as the mouse in the mouth has quite a muffling effect.

You're lucky you were able to catch the baby mousie. I'm usually not so successful. Hekla does her catch and release at my feet thing and then entertains herself by watching me trying to equal her hunting skill. Nice kitty.

[Mel]

Oh, you shouldn't have listened to that Canadian. I've taken pics of the cat playing with a mouse (which I euthanized afterwards because it was in pretty rough shape and I didn't care to watch the playing with food thing, either) and of a mouse in the live trap. Just remember that it's gonna come right back inside, where it could end up like the one David found melted behind a pile of magazines a few weeks back. At least we found the source of the smell.

[Christina]

I saw over at Holy Candy that Barry Manilow refuses to be on the View because he disagrees with Elizabeth's "dangerous" political world view. Go, Barry!