Of Mice and Men…

All in all, a good weekend. A dinner invitation from my son and fiance on Friday to join them at a favourite restaurant; a surprise birthday party for my sister; one brief, unproductive and unattributed bout of retching in the middle of the night on Saturday (my husband swears it wasn’t him and neither Catie nor Riley will own up to it either).

Catie’s appetite is back. All is well.

Last Tuesday was the OMG-the-keys-are-locked-in-the-car-and-I-can’t-get-in-the-house fiasco.

This Tuesday … all in all a good day until I pull into the driveway. The black bags on my neighbours’ curbsides signal that garbage pick-up is tomorrow

I open the garage door, haul out a couple of bags. I notice, as I head to the end of the driveway, that one of them has a couple of holes.

As I deposit it on the ground, two little mice scamper out of the bag. One heads west; the other straight east.

I shriek.

I park the car in the garage, holding my breath (yes, I know all about hantavirus) and run into the house. Catie and Riley think my panic is simply excitement at being home.

Now, I’m very familiar with lot of animated movies of cute little rodents. Stuart Little and The Rescuers, An American Tail and The Great Mouse Detective and the singing mice in Cinderella were all very enchanting. Even Mickey Mouse had a certain charm, if one could get past that annoying voice of his.

But there is nothing agreeable at all about them scampering and scavenging in my garage.

There are three nose prints on the front window this evening. Catie and Riley are on their continued watch for rabbits; I’ve been fixated on the garage door and wondering how I’m going to get my car out in the morning.

My husband has promised to take care of the squatters.

Author: CatiesMom

Mom of SEVEN-year old Catie and five-year old Riley, Golden Retrievers.

11 thoughts on “Of Mice and Men…”

  1. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKK!
    (that’s my mommy in the background at the thought of mice in the garage!)

    ccComet

  2. LOL. Sorry, to laugh at your critter problem, but a couple of winters ago, we had a shrew running around in the house. He must have hitched a ride in an armload of firewood.

    Don’t know if you have ever seen one, but they are about the size of one of those large bumble bees. Every time that thing would scamper through the living room, Opie would turn his head and act like he didn’t see it. It was as if he was thinking, “Dang, I hope that’s not my job.”

    I finally live trapped him in a “Tin Cat.” My husband didn’t believe I caught him, so I told him to look in one of the holes in the trap (holes for ventilation). He did and the little shrew stuck his nose out the hole and then he squeezed his whole head and body through that same hole. Fell right in my husband’s lap, jumped on the floor and scampered away…free again. Opie pretended not to see it, once again. : )

    Opie’s Mom

  3. Oh Opie’s Mom, just the thought of a rodent falling in MY lap just now gave me a whole body shudder.

    I guess Opie’s not for hire as a mouser then.

  4. Pretty much the way I shrieked, Comet and Comet’s mom. Just not quite so sustaining a note. More like “Eek” with a nasty expletive thrown in for good measure.

    I’m parking in the driveway tonight.

  5. I would be shrieking too if I encountered what you and Opie’s pawrents encountered! Although I do have an encounter too: One time when Kobe was about 6 months old, Mackenzie and Kobe were outside hovering around something with their tails wagging (I could only see them from behind.) When I called them, Kobe comes barreling out with a “stuffed toy” in his mouth. Well, that stuffed toy happened to be a big gigantic mouse! I screamed so loud I think the neighbors thought I was getting murdered. So definitely know how it feels when encountering those cute little furry creatures….glad to know that we all survived :). Also happy to hear that Catie’s appetite is back!

  6. Those darn rodents! They show up in the craziest places! Mom and Dad had a little incident where the mice were living in a car that was stored at Grandma’s. When they got home these mice starting surfacing. They were tiny. Mom wouldn’t kill them and Dad was scared (don’t tell him I said that 🙂 ) of them, so Mom started catching them with a cup. She caught like 6 of them and let them loose in our park. The next day a couple more surfaced, but they were dead! Dumb mice, if they would have come out the night before their lives would have been spared! The End!! Dumb story I know, but kind of silly!

    Glad all is well in Catie’s and Riley’s world! Hopefully no more encounters with those yucky little rodents!

    XOXO & Hi-fives
    Dillon and Rhys

  7. Ew!!! In a car?!

    Gross.

    My car’s in the driveway and it’s staying parked there until I’m sure all the rodents have packed up and moved on to some Disney or Pixar studio.

  8. And Mackenzie’s Mom….

    Double gross.

    A tiny bird’s nest was tucked away in the vines around the deck a couple summers ago; I didn’t realize it was there and for the longest time I couldn’t figure out Catie’s fascination with that particular area was until she finally knocked it down and contentedly looked at me while she munched on a baby bird.

    I shrieked a little bit that day too.

    Seriously horrifying.

  9. Poor Carmen ! I hope your mice move on quickly. They are determined little critters.

    Opie ! I snorted out loud – you sound so much like my Keaton. He would pointedly look the other way too! Like when we took in the last rescue cat – who ruled his new abode with an iron claw – when Keaton met up with ‘Wolfie’ in the hallway – Keaton – who outweighed Wolfie by 90 lbs or so – would look pointedly at the wall ! “If I can’t see him – he can’t see me, right?!”

  10. I’m with you! Our first house was very old, and one day my husband asked me why I left a partially eaten pretzel stick on the window sill in the basement! (I have to admit I was expecting, so he probably was somewhat justified in thinking I was snacking while doing the laundry). Needless to say, I hadn’t left the pretzel stick; he hadn’t left the pretzel stick… we had mice. Yuck!

    We’re glad Catie’s doing well… too bad she and Riley can’t help out with de-mousing the garage! Although I wouldn’t want doggie kisses from dogs who have been de-mousing. 🙂

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