Mouse-a-trois

I am seeing the cycles in my life. On the phone as usual with my daughter, discussing ironing and the need for casual sex (for her, not me!), I realized I hadn't fed the animals. I tossed some kibble down for the dog and went into the cat's room to feed her.

I saw the cat hesitate before jumping up on the changing table that holds her dish. That's when I noticed the lid was off the litter box so she couldn't bounce off it and onto the table. In trying to put the lid back on the box, I saw a stack of totes leaning against the litter box. I needed to right the stack before I could put the lid back on.

The totes wouldn't stand straight with a vacuum hose under them (okay, how had they been standing all this time with the hose under them? I hadn't moved the hose). I dragged the hose out from beneath.

SHREEIIIIKKKKKKKK!!!

So, that's what happened to the first mouse the kitty found! It'd been hiding under the edge of that tote!

Cursing up a blue streak, I was down the hall and far away before I could explain to my daughter what I had found. The worst part was I then needed to go back and make sure it was a dead mouse we were talking about.

Yep, mouse number two, the one she pulled out from behind the fridge while I got ready for work one morning, was truly dead. It's too big to have been mouse number three, and not as big as mouse number one.  I hurried out of the room again.

How is it I keep coming back to this point? For the third time in 7 months, I am facing the need to dispose of a mouse and there is no one around to pass the chore along to. Is this a life lesson I have refused to learn?

Hey, do you think if I gather up my courage, boldly march into the room, grab the dead mouse by the tail and blithely toss the carcass into the woods, I will rid myself of the need to experience more mice in the house?

Nah, I didn't think so, either! That's a good thing, 'cause it ain't gonna happen! Now pardon me while I go find the longest broom handle I can so I can sweep that tiny critter out of the house without getting within three feet of it!

Well, damn, blast and double damn! The cat wasn't done playing with the freakin' carcass, and while I was out here waxing neurotic she'd taken the petrified mouse out into the hallway to play with, like a child who has rediscovered an old toy in the trash! I only discovered this AFTER walking down the darkened hallway to find the body missing. I missed stepping on it barefoot by mere inches!

I know there is something to be learned here. I refuse to believe that keeping shoes on during all waking hours is going to solve my mouse situation. I don't think that getting rid of the cat will help, either. That would only narrow the number of places I find mice. I do hope to find an answer soon, as I only learned to count to ten in French!