ARGH!!! The Cat Killed The Mouse!

      Okay, please bear with me.  I'm in a mess at the moment and am concentrating on another matter for the most part.  The cat killed the mouse!  Not a mouse...one that he might snag running through the house.  I'm talking about THE mouse...my control over the computer.

      I was actually away from the computer doing something else for a change and the mouse wasn't attached to my right hand.  When I sit back down and reach out, I notice something was missing!  I look down and, there on the floor, sit both the mouse and the cat.  And he had his usual attitude look on his face, which was a dead give away there was no doubt what had happened.  Cord...toy...play!  It could have gone one of two ways.  The mouse could have broke it's little tchnological neck in the fall from the desk to the floor.  Or if it had been lucky enough to survive that tumble, it was probably played to death by the cat and it succumbed while he was batting it around off the furniture. 

      I tenderly retrieve my favorite pet (the cat just went to the bottom of that list...and he's the only one on it).  I hear a rattle; maybe there's hope; maybe its still going.  I put it on its pad and gingerly roll it back and forth - nothing.  I move it up and down - still nothing.  I place it on its back and open its underside.  Then I have to remove that big mouse ball.  I turn it back over and shake...rattle, rattle, rattle.  Out falls a tiny pin one quarter inch long, but something else is still inside.  I shake some more...and shake some more...and keep shaking...and shake a little more.  It's not working and I'm not about to run right out and get a replacement.

      So what do I do?  I'm bound and determined I'm not going to be stopped.  I have things to do on the computer.  And I gotta Gather!  I replace the mouse ball and pop the bottom back on and slap that broken baby down...and it's taking like forever to get the blankity-blank cursor to line up with where I want it to go so I can click.  One of the motion wheels had broken off inside and now it only goes up and down or back and forth; not at the same time, and there's no circular motion whatsoever.  Here I sit striking the mouse against the pad back and forth for 20 seconds to get it to go under where I want to move upwards.  And another 20 seconds striking it up and down to get it to line up near the final target.  Then it's the skill of tiny strikes to get the point of the cursor when it needs to be so I can move on to the next function. 

      And look at the goof who's sitting here going through all this...just to be on the computer and carry on his routine.  I'll be doing this for a couple days before I can see if a replacement can be located.  (In computer years, my unit is over the hill, like someone I'm friends with.  My machine is almost 5 years old...he'll be 29 next week.)

      And where's the cat?  Through my tribulation, he's been out to eat and have a sip of cool water.  I'm sure he hit the litter box upstairs in the bathroom.  I JUST cleaned it (one of the things I was doing while he was playing), so of course he can't let it go any more than 5 minutes before making a fresh deposit.  And now...sound ass asleep on "his" spot on top of the dresser elevated over the space heater for that extra warmth.  If you can't fight 'em...I even put a blanket up there for him.  It's better than him kneading one of my good pullovers, curling up and I have a cat-schmear sweater.  And to think, I "rescued" him off the street...just a black and white alley cat.  I have many names I yell at him when he's raising hell.  You can call him F.N. Kat.