Eeeeeek..... You Know What That Means

So, k-ster walked into the kitchen last night to announce that Gwenstopher had just happily brought a mouse into the living room and dropped it behind the couch.  !!????!!!

We live in a very old house with a dirt cellar, so mice have free rein to get in the house.   When we've had a lot of rain like we've had, we usually see one.  And so does the cat.  Sometimes, we find one by accident when she leaves it, dead, outside the bedroom door.   It's an old house *shrug* we can't really avoid these things.  They don't get into our food, so what else can I do?

This time was something totally different.  Not 10 minutes before, she had been sitting on the couch with me.  Then she went off, I assume to see if there was any food in her bowl, and then out of nowhere, she came back in with a mouse that wasn't dead!

If this hadn't been 10 minutes before we went to bed, it wouldn't have been such a big deal.  But, I wasn't going to stay up all night hoping she'd catch the mouse.  If you know anything about cats, once you show a lot of interest in their prey, they are all done with it and will have nothing to do with catching it again.  And I wasn't crazy about locking her in the living room for 2 reasons.  1)  I didn't want her to catch it and then decapitate it on my white rug.  2)  there isn't a litter box in there and it's not fair to keep her locked up all night without one.  But I locked her in there anyway.

We heard some scrambling around a time or two, so I thought for sure she'd get it.  She usually does, when left alone.

I got up around 2 and opened the door a little and she came out and then proudly went right back in, so I was sure that meant she had killed it  and I'd find it this morning.

NOTHING.  NOWHERE.  I looked behind the couch and all over that room.  UGH. 

The funny thing is, I don't think she had been stalking this one for long.  I truly think she was wandering toward the kitchen and fell upon this mouse and was like "SCORE!".  k-ster said she came from the bedroom with it. 

Now, we don't allow mice in the bedroom.  That is like the last place I will shrug my shoulders and say "well, it's an old house, whatever".  No, not in my bedroom.  Where little mice paws can climb up the bed skirt and run across my face.  No, no, no.

Since we  have this "track" (click there to read about the catnip incident involving this track) where we can go from living room to bedroom to living room over and over and over (an thankfully shut all of the doors in situations like this), I believe she caught it in the other living room and just walked with it through the bedroom to give it to k-ster.  Who clearly was in need of a meal, so she dropped it for him to play with and then eat.  When he didn't go after it, she was like "oh crap, I better grab it again" and remained in hot pursuit for a while.

To no avail.

I better find a dead mouse in the middle of the floor when I get home today. 

OR.  ELSE.

When there's a mouse unfound, I can't help but think of THE DREAMING DEATH.  We watched The Guiding Light for a LOOOOOOOONG time, actually until it ended a few years ago.  When we were little, my mother would watch it or tape it and watch it later.  We weren't supposed to watch it, but we did.  And then when I was an adult, I'd tape it for a while and watch it when I got home.  And then it was over.  All those characters we grew up with.  Gone. 

Anydisease, THE DREAMING DEATH was a plot for a while that involved some white lab mice that had a sickness called, you guessed it, THE DREAMING DEATH.  I think they must have been in some god forsaken country for that portion and these mice were biting people.  And someone was probably doing research for a cure and brought home the mice.  They would have malaria like symptoms and I am sure someone must have died.  I no longer remember which characters were involved, maybe I have THE DREAMING DEATH right now because I am doing a bad job of explaining this, but I vividly remember one scene.

Someone blond reached into a drawer to get a knife, in the kitchen, and was bitten by one of these mice in the drawer.  She had blurry vision and then dream like situations and was on the brink.  And then I am sure, as soap operas do, she was magically cured by some doctor, probably Ed or Rick Bauer, and all was well.

Even today, whenever I reach blindly into a drawer or cabinet,  I wonder if one of those white mice will bite me and give me THE DREAMING DEATH.