The cat and the mouse

This is sorta funny and really unimportant, but hey, sometimes that is exactly what makes me laugh! I was cleaning up the kitchen one morning and out of the corner of my eye I saw a mouse run across the patio. Then the next time I looked up Rufus was trying to sniff around trying to figure out where it had gone. The sun had been out for a couple of days and the snow had started to melt a little. There was the smallest little layer of air between the top layer of ice and the ground, just small enough for a mouse to run underneath. The cat quickly figured out that was where the mouse had gone. He was poking his head down the hole that the runoff from the rain gutter had made. He went from the edge of the patio to the hole and back and forth. I lost interest after a short time. But throughout the morning while I was doing my chores I couldn't help but wonder what had happened. Part of me was cheering on the mouse for being clever and outsmarting the cat by finding a brilliant hiding place. But the other part of me wanted the cat to win because he wasn't giving up. Back and forth he went for quite some time. Every time I walked past the window he was still pacing waiting for his opportunity.

Alas, an hour or so later there was a mouse on my doorstep. That cat has caught more than 20 mice since we have lived here. I don't want to think how many mice are actually in the vacant lots across the street, but at least I know they aren't getting into my house! Well, actually, one did. Quick story: One day Josh opened the garage door and a mouse hobbled in and ran into the pantry. Dayt was called in to verify the story. Sure enough, there was a VERY injured little mouse in the pantry - now that was sad! Poor Dayt didn't know what to do. He already had to kill a mouse just before we moved in to put it out of it's misery (Jantz had thrown a rock into the window well and hit it and injured the poor thing!) He really didn't want to do it again. Long story short, he gave it back to the cat!!