Our "little" mouse

For several weeks now, we have been aware of a little freeloader living in our house. Yes, we have a mouse and not by choice! We don't know where he came from but he seems quite content here and is unconcerned by Ray's efforts to end his life. Up until two days ago, Ray and I had both seen him once. He was a an itty, bitty thing (not that that derailed our efforts to kill him ... I'm so grossed out by him, no matter his size, that I couldn't even choose a picture for this entry of a REAL mouse without my skin crawling).

Everything changed, however, two nights ago. Ray heard him in our baking cabinet. As with most old houses, the kitchen is NOT laid out like a modern kitchen and the cabinet space is minimal and spread out throughout the kitchen. The cabinet that holds the baking supplies is not adjoining any other cabinet and is, as Ray pointed out, hardly ever opened by me. So Ray carefully opened the cabinet door and spied the little rodent holed up in a bag of flour. He called me downstairs from midst of putting Cady to bed, with the instructions to "leave Cady upstairs", which of course she would have none of. So we both came down.

Ray asked, "do you wanna see him?"

We both say "NO" but cautiously approach.

Ray had a 2-cup measuring cup in hand to catch our little buddy. He reached into the cabinet and the thing jumps out and runs like a big, fat bat outta hell. Munching his way through a bag of flour had increased his size dramatically. And I regret to tell you that

ALL THREE OF US SCREAMED LIKE LITTLE GIRLS!!!

And I regret even more to tell you that I was the first one out of the room, leaving my daughter unprotected, in the company of her screaming daddy. As I write this, I laugh at the vision of it in my head but it was NOT funny at the moment.

Cady was quite upset by the whole episode. Not just by seeing the mouse, but even moreso by the sight of her daddy screaming and just as scared as the next person (don't let him tell you otherwise!!). As we went into Round #2 of putting her to bed, she kept asking why he was screaming and who was going to take care of her now. We're trying to re-establish her confidence in Ray's prowess as Daddy by lying to her and telling her that Daddy chased the mouse down to the basement and killed him. Is that wrong??

We'll keep you posted as to when Mr. Mouse REALLY meets his end. I hope it's soon!!