Mouse in the House!

How many children does it take to catch a mouse?? Five, armed with an arrow and a cup, plus one mother giving orders from on top of the table!

About lunchtime yesterday, Sam calmly said, "There's a mouse over there." "Where?" I asked him, not really believing that he really saw a mouse. "Over there," pointing in the direction of our shoe basket which is beside our pantry. For a second I thought that he was probably telling the truth, he probably did see a mouse, but I quickly dismissed that thought and went on with my day.

Later that afternoon I walked in the kitchen and found our cat digging furiously in the shoe basket. It was then that I knew! Sam was right! I quickly called Clay to investigate. He started poking around the shoe basket with his arrow, and the mouse ran out! into the pantry! For 30 minutes or so Clay and Olivia poked around the pantry trying to catch the fat little mouse, while Julie, Leah, Sam and I watched from the safety of the island and the table. The mouse would pause during the chase for a snack of a gummy bear or a piece of cereal. (My pantry floor needed vacuuming!) Next the mouse ran under the refrigerator. Clay patiently sat in front of the refrigerator, waiting for him to come out. Finally, the mouse scurried across the floor, and Clay slammed the green cup over his plump body. Caught!

see the little tail sticking out on the right?

We waited for Jimmy to finish cutting the grass to ask him how to get the mouse outside (we wanted to send him back to his family and friends). While waiting, the mouse worked his way out from under the cup! I jumped up on a barstool and called for my mouse catcher (Clay) again! Clay caught him again, and this time surrounded the cup with heavy books. It wasn't long before Jimmy came in and took the mouse out to the woods. Thank goodness!

The pantry got a thorough cleaning and vacuuming yesterday. I sure hope the mouse doesn't have any friends!