Tag: mouse

Mouse Hunt

I mentioned in a post yesterday that the cats were on a mouse hunt. They were going all kinds of crazy from room to room. Stalking for a while, chasing for a while, pouncing for a while. It was distracting and entertaining. I told Robin the Cat that if she caught the mouse I would give her treats.

Last night before bed I found that their endeavors were successful. There was a very small little mouse on our bedroom floor, dead as a door nail, and two cats up high on the furniture guarding over it. I scooped up the fallen rodent soldier and took it outside. Then I went to the top of the refrigerator and took down the bag of cat treats and gave our mouse hunters their reward. Good work, cats. Thank you for protecting our home. Guard cats.

If I had caught the mouse I would have taken it outside alive, but I knew there was slim chance of that. I was busy working and getting ready for today’s medical thing and I knew the cats were going to get it. This is the first time they have killed a mouse (that I know of) but it was just a matter of time. We live in the woods. Critters are a thing.

Thank you, mousers. Congratulations on a job well done. Also, thank you for leaving it where I could find it and for not offering it up like a present in the middle of the night or anything. Most appreciated. Maybe I’ll give you more treats today.

The Mouse Hunt is On

Both cats just freaked out. They chased the mouse behind a chair and cornered it. They both tried to grab it but it zigged and zagged and dodged, dived, dipped, ducked, and dodged and got away.

The chase is on! Good luck getting any sleep tonight with all the mouse hunting racket going on.

Go get ’em, mouse hunting kitties!

Mouser Fail

Okay, before you get all judgmental I am going to say that we live in the woods, it’s winter, it’s freezing cold out, and we got a metric tonne of snow last night. All of that combined leads to one unfortunate truth: Little tiny furry critters are going to find their way into our house. It is inevitable. It doesn’t mean we’re leaving food out or any shit like that, it just means our house is warm. That’s all. Get over your shit and just enjoy the stupid little story, m’kay?

I was sitting on the couch in the living room working on some music on my laptop. My wife was at her desk in her office working. The two cats were laying together on top of one of the cat trees. They were asleep, as far as I could tell.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in the hallway between the living room and my wife’s office. It was a mouse. It was casually strolling around the corner into the living room. It stayed close to the wall and went behind a chair and I lost sight of it. A few seconds later it popped out again and walked calmly right up to the base of the cat tree! Neither cat noticed. They didn’t move a muscle. Way to sleep on the job, felines!

The mouse changed direction and ran into the next room. I followed it but quickly lost sight of it. I made some noise and shifted some furniture around but the little sucker was nowhere to be found. I went back to the couch and got back to work.

About half an hour later or so I saw it in the hallway again. This time it did not come into the living room with me. Instead it changed direction and ran into Jen’s office. I watched as it went right under her desk, literally inches away from her feet! We can’t have that now can we? I went into the room after it and pulled Jen away from her desk. We had the little home invading bastard cornered against the wall but with the desk in the way neither one of us could really reach it.

Eventually it made a dash for the door and left the two slow moving humans in the dust. Straight out the door, across the hallway, through the living room door and straight into Robin the Cat! It was like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. The mouse skidded to a stop, squeaked, “Holy shit!” clearly at the same instant that Robin yelled, “Holy Shit!” back at it, then it turned around and ran back into the office.

We had it cornered again, this time on the other side of the room. We also had two cats taking a keen interest, but again the little shit managed to make a break for the door and leave us all behind. The four of us gave chase, but it lost us all again and eventually we gave up looking for it. Robin is still stalking around the house determined to catch the furry little asshole. Jen and I are both back to what we were doing before. Lily is doing what she does best… sleeping.

If the cats don’t catch it tonight I am probably going to have to put traps out tomorrow. Sorry, mouse.

He’ll be Proud

My step son, Harry, will be proud of me. I just finished watching Better Call Saul. He really wanted me to watch it. He was raving about it all the time. Now I’ve watched the whole series and he can finally talk to me about it without worrying about spoilers.

FYI, it’s as good as everyone says it is. Go watch it.

Subject change. I mentioned that I bought a few new guitar pedals over the last week. I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet. I’m debating whether I want to integrate them into the board I use at home, or should I make a brand new pedal board instead. I’m leaning toward a new board. Just for a while at least. Just for schnitzengiggles.

Subject change. We have a couch delivery scheduled for this morning. The delivery window they gave me is pretty long. It extends into my work day and it overlaps two scheduled meetings. Here’s hoping we get lucky and the truck gets here early enough to not mess anything up.

Subject change. Our mouse hunting cats had a target last night. We woke up in the middle of the night to see them chasing a gross little teeny tiny rodent around. At the time, the little bastard got away. We don’t see any signs of the prick this morning, but the cats are clearly still on high alert. We live in the woods. One of the biggest rivers in New England runs smack through our town. Mice are a part of life. Still… go get the little home invading asshole, cats. Do your job. Protect your house.

Okay. Time to go start the day. That delivery truck is going to be here… eventually.

Mouse Hunt

We are proud of our two cats. They have protected their house from an invader. A little, tiny, furry, squeaky invader.

They caught a mouse.

We saw them hunting when we got up this morning. There was something in a closet that they really wanted to get at. I saw it for a second. A little brown mouse. It was adorable. It was also a bastard of a home invader who needed to be removed. The mouse got away this morning. It did not get away for long.

Jen walked into a room and found it laying in the middle of the floor, seemingly dead. She turned away to get something to cover the body and when she turned back it was gone. A few minutes later she found it seemingly dead on the floor not far away. Was it actually dead this time or was it just playing dead? I scooped it up and took it outside. Pretty sure it was dead. Poor little sucker.

Good job, cats! Lily and Robin protected their home and their family. They are good mouse hunters. We gave them some treats in thanks. Good job, my little furry friends. We’re proud of you.

Furry Critter Freedom

At some point earlier today my wife was able to drop a bowl on top of our little home invading mouse house guest.

When I got home I was able to slide the bowl and its contents on top of a piece of paper, flip it over, and carry it outside where I could set our mouse house guest free. It squeaked a lot as I was trying to pick it up, but when I tipped it out of the bowl outside in the yard it didn’t move at all. It just sat there on the ground. It was clearly alive, just shocked out of its brain.

I figured it was too embarrassed by the whole experience to make any kind of move while I was watching so I left it to its own thing and started walking back to the house. As I was walking through the door I distinctly heard the tiniest, faintest squeak that sounded exactly like a mouse version of William Wallace in Braveheart shouting, “FREEDOM!”

I’m totally serious about that last part. Totally. I mean, would I lie to you about something like that?

Mouse

Jen sent me this mouse hunting video a few hours ago. The mouse got away. It is still in the house somewhere but it is currently avoiding the kaiju-esque cats.

Now… do videos from Flickr work on WordPress.com? Let’s find out. (note: the embedded video player from Flickr for some reason includes about 10 miles of white space in the actual post. Scroll down… WAY down to see the clip)

Mickey

I am in the office today. That’s a shame because Jen is sending me play by play updates of the cats playing with a (terrified beyond measure) mouse in the kitchen.

The poor thing doesn’t realize that the cats are trying to play with it. I don’t think the cats are smart enough to know they are supposed to be mouse hunters who eliminate the home invaders. They just see it as a super fun toy.

Jen sent video. I might have to share it. The cats are adorable. The mouse is also adorable, though scared out of its wits by the two gigantic, furry, monsters that are chasing it around.

The last time the cats had a mouse cornered and I wasn’t home Jen was able to drop a bowl over the mouse and the cats lost interest quickly. When I got home I took it outside and set it free. Here’s hoping we can do the same today.

The Scroll Wheel is Dead, Long Live the Scroll Wheel

I take a mouse with me when I work in the office. It’s not the same mouse I use when I work at home, it’s actually the mouse that came with the last desktop computer I was issued at work back in… 1862? Something like that? 2016 maybe?

I was using the scroll wheel to scroll through an email and it just stopped working. I closed the browser and reopened it, thinking it was a software issue. Nope, it still didn’t work. I rebooted my laptop (issued to me in 2021, I think) because I thought it might be a hardware thing outside of the mouse itself. Nope.

The scroll wheel is dead.

I went to Amazon and ordered a cheap-o wireless mouse to replace it. I found a few of various levels of cheapness, then took one of the cheaper ones so that I could spend a little more for overnight delivery to make sure I had it as soon as possible.

Long live the scroll wheel.

On an unrelated note, there have been no stomach issues today. Kick ass. It’s not even 4:00pm yet and I am already close to hitting my water goal, close to having all of my vitamins in, and sort of close to hitting my protein goal. After yesterday’s dietary B.S., things are looking really good today. Killer.

Okay, less than 1.75 hours left in the work day. I have to somehow get through the rest of the day without having a scroll wheel. How did we do it in the old days? How did we even survive without scroll wheels?

More Mouse Hunting

I actually feel bad for this little rodent bastard. A little. Not much, but a little.

I got up this morning and walked to the bathroom, ya know like ya do. Both cats were in there just hanging out. That’s odd. Something is up. Lily was just sitting on the floor mat. Robin was investigating something near one of the towel racks. I couldn’t see what she was after. At least not until I looked up. On the shower curtain rod, right in the middle, was a mouse. Just sitting there. Calmly surveying all around him. Oh no you don’t, you home invading fucker!

I had my iPad with me. I used it to swat the mouse off the curtain rod. I hoped the cats would take it from there, but they ran away in abject terror. Chickens. The mouse was a little stunned so I threw the floor mat over it and kicked it against the side of the tub. I would have just stepped on the bastard but I was barefoot and we ain’t going there.

I had the little shit trapped for the moment. Was it dead? Did I kill it when I smooshed the mat against the tub? Hopefully, but doubtful. I had nothing to scoop it up with so I figured I would trap it under the waste basket and figure it out from there. I pulled the mat away and tried to drop the basket down but it was too fast and ran into the corner. We went back and forth behind the toilet a little but I was too slow and it made it out of the room.

It ran into Harry’s room. I had it cornered for a second, but when I reached down to pick up a book off the floor to squash it with it managed to run into Harry’s closet and that was all she wrote.

A few hours went by. Jen and I were both logged into work. Her office is next to the bathroom which is next to Harry’s room. I am in the cellar underneath Harry’s room. I could hear the cats running around above me. Jen could hear the terrified little mouse home invader asshole squeaking. I went upstairs to look and found the cats lounging in the doorway to Harry’s room. Just hanging out. Keeping watch.

A few minutes later Jen asked me to come back. The cats had the little prick cornered in the hallway. This time I was wearing shoes and I was able to kick it against the wall. It wasn’t dead, but it was stunned enough for me to grab a broom and a dustpan and a plastic bag and scoop him up. I put him into the bag, took him outside into the pouring rain, and dropped him into the gopher hole, just like the last one that I caught alive.

I do feel bad about kicking it. Just a tiny bit. Not enough to stop me from doing it again. You invade my home, you furry fuck, you get stepped on. Still. I would have preferred a catch and release kinda thing. This was more like a seriously injure, catch, release, and probably die within 10 minutes as something bigger is going to make a snack out of it. Oh well.

Another good job by the cats. They are skilled mouse hunters, though they don’t appear to be terribly skilled at closing the deal, if you know what I mean. I’ve actually had to put an end to each of their mouse hunts. They haven’t gone beyond the play stage yet. At least not that we know of.

I hate mice.