Last night I was asleep on the sofa as Denis channel-surfed the tv. It was about 10:40 p.m. and I was actually on the verge of going up to bed. All of a sudden Denis said, “I think Freddie has a mouse in his mouth.”
I shot up off the sofa and saw Freddie skulking by the stairs – he never skulks unless something is up. I approached him and he took off up the stairs. I raced after him, and he jumped over the gate to go to the attic. “Yes!” I said, “Go to the attic Freddie!” However, he opted at that moment to adjust his hold on the mouse (which was wide-eyed and playing dead). The mouse took a chance and was able to get away and scrambled in between the crack of our bedroom door.
FORTUNATELY I’m famous for keeping tons of crap on the floor behind our bedroom door, so he reached a bit of a dead end when he dodged under one of my tennis shoes – there was no place else to go because there was so much stuff there. I kept an eye on him (all I could see was his tail) and ask Denis to get a bag. He comes back a few moments later with a HUGE Macy’s shopping bag. I laughed and said, “Anything a bit smaller?” He ran downstairs and got a lunch bag and brought that up. I told him to fold down the top and put the open bag next to the door jamb where the mouse ran through to escape Freddie’s clutches. I then used some slight pressure on the shoe to coax out the mouse and he immediately ran for the door jamb and into the bag. Denis scooped up the bag and in one fluid motion twisted the top of the bag shut.
Denis took the mouse over to the school yard a block away and left him there. I’d prefer he take him to Brookdale Park since it’s a bit further away AND the mouse is less likely to go into someone else’s home, but it WAS 11 p.m. at night.
We have no idea where Freddie found the mouse, but when we had those two little mice (2 years ago?) they were in the basement after some really heavy rains. So I wonder if they sought shelter last week and managed to escape notice until last night.
Either way, I love my cats. They are GOOD mousers.
Freddy is sleeping up here in the attic after a hard day’s work yesterday. He deserves it.
Since you obviously love your pets and made donations to your local animal shelter from the Blogathon, would you mind dedicating a posting on how your readers can help the animals in New Orleans? Your website has an audience and the more people who know about the abandoned pets, the more help they can receive. Donations can be made at aspca.org or the Humane Society of the United States (hsus.org). It is heart breaking what hurricane Katrina has done to both the people and animals and whatever help they can receive will be much appreciated. :pray:
You did well, Jayne! Mice usually outsmart people!