Eeek! A Mouse!

Now, everyone will have to understand that there's no picture of this story. As you read, you'll see why...

First some background information:

1. About 15 years ago, when Nana and Grampy moved into their house in Merrimack, there was an incident with a mouse. It was fall, and the mouse decided that coming inside might be preferable to staying outside for the winter. It was noticed by Nana - with a characteristic, "OOH, OOH, I see a mouse!" The mouse was then corralled into the dining room with various family members placed strategically to keep it from escaping. What were we supposed to do??? Chase it toward one of us who had a cardboard box. I don't remember who that was - probably Grampy - and he was supposed to catch the mouse in the box so that it could then be removed from the house. Well much yelling and excitement ensued and despite 7 or 8 people all trying to catch the mouse, it escaped under a counter or somewhere to be caught later in a more conventional trap. What made this so very funny was watching these grown people try to catch the mouse. Everyone fell into a heap laughing, which then caused Nana to have to make a hasty retreat to the bathroom. Use your imagination - she's had 4 children, she's over 65, - you get the picture. If you know our family at all, you'll be laughing right now just picturing this to yourself.

2. When Alex was about 4, we were having a discussion on a Sunday night (we were probably at Nana's), about the roles we all play in the family. We asked Alex, "What do daddies do?" He answered with a very concise list of the duties necessary for fatherhood. Dads go to work, go to school (Gary was working on his Master's Degree), sit in their chair (ie.: Lazyboy recliner), and catch mice. The rodent control portion of this list was due to the same fall influx of field mice (see #1 above) who also found the Nashua house to be cozy. Every year we would have a few come in and try to take up residence in the dropped ceiling of the basement. Being the man that he is, Gary spent much effort at discouraging them, catching them (and making sure they were dead), and disposing of them. Since this task was surely not part of my realm, I always made sure to display my thankfulness that he was so good at this unpleasant job. Alex must have picked up on this and forever memorialized one of the true parts of male parenting. Men must catch mice.

Now for today's chapter about mice...

We all get up very early during the school year, since the kids have to be at school at 7:20 for their first class. I usually wake up first, and pop my head into the kids rooms to make sure they are at least thinking about getting up. I had done this and was sitting in my comfy chair in the family room with Zach. He was behaving very nicely and lying peacefully - which was surprising, because I hadn't fed him yet. If there's even one person up, he thinks it's time for breakfast.

All of a sudden, he jumped up and scrambled across the hardwood floor into the kitchen. At first I thought that he must be chasing a fly or a spider - because he does that all the time. Catches them sometimes too! This time though, he was very persistent about something under the kitchen table. I looked but couldn't see anything at first and thought he was just having a spell of idiocy. He does have a tendency to bark and get excited about stuff we can't see or hear. Very often he seems quite insane.

Closer inspection revealed that there was a tiny tiny mouse under the table, huddling close to the wall. Now it was my turn to say, "OOH OOH a mouse!" Zach was doing a good job of scaring it into not moving, and I was now trying to think of how I was going to catch this thing and get it out of the house by myself. All the commotion woke Alex up for good and he came into the kitchen understandably puzzled. We decided to see if we could catch the mouse in an upended plastic cup. Now here's where it gets funny.

Zach was watching from one end of the table, Alex was in the middle closest to the mouse, and I was at the other end with a broom. I didn't want to kill the thing, just shoo it back under the table to make it easier for Alex to catch it. Zach was definitely also doing his part by making sure the mouse wasn't going to get past him either. After two attempts, the mouse managed to make it past all of us and hide under Gary's chair. Alex then was able to catch it under the cup and take it outside.

Now this is potentially bad, because we have to find out where the mice are. We also have to guess that since this mouse was so tiny, that there must be a mommy and a daddy mouse around too...and probably lots of brothers and sisters who are not welcome guests. Most likely, they are wood mice or field mice who are anticipating the colder weather coming next week - but we will have to make a good examination this weekend to stop any more from coming in.

The good part is that Alex has now taken one more step towards manhood. He caught a mouse!