Castle Mouser Misses the Mouse
A few days ago I spend several hours cleaning out a cubby hole off the living room. It houses a door to the outdoors, Sunny's Wee-Wee pad, bins of keepsakes, and a 50 pound bag of black oil sunflower seeds. It's the kind of catch-all area found in small houses without enough storage where the housekeeping is a bit casual.

I emptied the area out, evicted the spiders, washed the walls and noticed they need painting. I washed the floor, the woodwork, the door.

Tuesday night Bob and Pappy noticed a mouse running around the living room. Papillons were "castle mousers" centuries ago, and Pappy has a strong mouser instinct. In the rodent regard, he acts like a cat.

Pappy didn't sleep all night, bouncing in and out the bed (yes, he sleeps with us), but mostly out as he watched for a chance to catch the mouse.

Need I tell you where the mouse set up headquarters? Pooping little mouse turds all over my clean cubby hole?

Next day I found Mr. Mouse behind the storage bins. He was cute. I hated to kill him but really wanted him GONE.

Bob had an idea. Open the door to the outside and let him leave. Since there's a door between the cubby hole and the living room, it should be quick and easy.

So, I moved some of the things out of the cubby hole in order to have room to move the bins. Then I shut the door between the cubby hole and the living room in order to a) keep the mouse in b) keep Pappy out.

Pappy took up his station outside the closed door. I opened the door to the outside and moved the bins to get Mr. Mouse in motion. Mr. Mouse did not want to be cold and wet. He ran out of his hiding place, under the door to the living room, and down the radiator pipe to the basement.

Pappy missed him. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of Pappy's life. He spent the rest of the day patrolling the area and even took a nap with his nose pointed toward the radiator. Mr. Mouse didn't show.

I'm sure Pappy blames me for this. If only I had warned him Mr. Mouse was coming through. But I didn't know. I thought I was chasing him outdoors.