Mr Life is a good-natured chap. Give him his dinner followed by a sofa, a crossword, a cat and "Midsomer Murders" on the tv and you won't get much trouble from him.On Friday night, we'd just sat down to our dinner when the phone rang next door in the dining room. Mr Life got up to answer it. It was Daughter 2, who'd left the house a few minutes ago in the car. It had started to rain heavily and she just wanted to check that the black shadow she'd seen galloping towards the house was indeed our gentleman cat, Sirius (as featured in the picture. Butter wouldn't melt.) His sister, Cassie, was already home for the night. Just that moment, Sirius came through the cat flap so Mr Life was just assuring her that yes, all was well, when he noticed that Sirius had brought in a friend. A mouse friend. Mr Life yelled, I leapt up from my meal and we both started chasing Sirius, who took refuge under the dining room table. This is a table with four legs and a crossbar, not to say various chairs tucked underneath, so extracting an alarmed cat who is clutching an even more alarmed mouse is not an easy task.
However, after a while he dropped the mouse and ran back into the kitchen, so I shut the connecting door - Cassie was also in the kitchen, which left us with just the mouse. Mr Mouse was unfortunately not at all grateful for his deliverance. He appeared to be quite unharmed physically by his capture but a certain amount of post-traumatic stress seemed to have set in. We probably didn't help by pursuing him round the furniture for some time. Mr Life was by now... slightly... exasperated. He had not had one bite of his dinner yet.
"I wonder," I suggested, "if we could get a box with a hole and maybe the mouse would run into the hole?" (I think I'd got this idea from Rachel of Slow Lane Life, who is a seasoned mouse-rescuer.) Mr Life didn't exactly call me an idiot but he did cast doubt on the efficacy of this tactic, so we continued for a while in our attempt to corner the mouse.
Then I tried the box thing. "Why would that work?" enquired Mr Life - well, I hesitate to suggest that he said this scathingly, but.... At this point, the mouse ran into the box and we put the box outside and that was that.
Till we went back into the kitchen to find Sirius on the table, scoffing Mr Life's dinner.
Mr Life and I have more in common than you would at first think :)
ReplyDeleteI will remember the box idea for future mouse visitations.
Ha ha ha...... The box just has to be open, not necessarily have a hole, and so long as it looks dark to the mouse, it will hide in it. People use all sorts of things, apparently, including wellies. And as mice tend to run alongside skirting boards, try to head them off before they reach the fireplace, or that little gap next to the fridge......
ReplyDeleteWell done, anyway! After two or three such mice, you'll be as skilled as I am, thanks to all the practice I got over the summer.
PS Here's the tutorial, if you want to gloat a bit over Mr Life....
ReplyDeletehttp://attica-slowlife.blogspot.com/2010/09/mouse-day.html
Wonderful post! I especially appreciated Sirius eating Mr. (Skeptical) Life's dinner. Kismet. And I'm glad the mouse was ok.
ReplyDeleteAll this will serve to make Mr. Life all the more contented the next time he gets hot dinner, a crossword, a cat, and his favorite TV show.
ReplyDeleteThat last sentence was a classic!
ReplyDeleteI love my cats but find myself shouting at them if they bring in a mouse...or a bird....eeeugh.
ReplyDeleteMr Life and my mister have a lot in common....good to be content isn't it?
Hilarious! Unless Sirius is the Machiavelli of all cats and planned this whole elaborate ruse as a way of eating Mr Life's dinner, in which case it would be a little bit scary.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, and all cat owners can relate. The box thing reminds me of the time I got up in the early morning, wearing only a t-shirt, and while sleepily peeing heard the unmistakable croak of a frog down near my feet. It was a good-sized frog, too. I threw a handy shoebox on top of the thing and somehow got the lid on. Then I ran out the FRONT door and pitched the box as far as I could. It was only a few seconds, but I always wonder if anyone witnessed the strange incident of the half-naked woman pitching a frog in a box.
ReplyDeleteIsobelle, what a chuckle you gave us tonight - Hubby, myself and Kylie.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Mr. Life was not quite his usual good-natured self after that little adventure with the not-so-happy ending (afterall) :)
We are quite looking forward to trying out the box idea. Sheba, one of our barn cats is the best mouser around, but she doesn't come into the house, and anyway, her "victims" are rarely in any condition to be of much use in a test, being half eaten as they usually are.
I always enjoy your kitty photos :) Nice one of Daughter #2 as well.
I meant to add that Jasmine and Hannah seem to understand the house rules - no presents, please! Sheba however, will often leave "gifts" by the back door.
ReplyDeleteIs it wrong to laugh?
ReplyDeletePoor Mr Life (she says, chuckling). We had a mouse episode lately and now have an old glass shelf weighted by a cast iron doorstop, in the shape of a pig, tastefully covering the hole it made and hopefully preventing a further visit. Looks a bit odd as it's underneath a glass cabinet in the sittingroom, but people are usually too polite to comment..
ReplyDeleteOh No! I must admit I laughed out loud -- Sorry Mr. Life! I can just imagine the two of you chasing after that mouse. And kudos to you for remembering the mouse trick -- that's a new one to me, and one that must be remembered!
ReplyDeleteThis tale is so funny, really cheered me up on the wet and windy day.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, this cracked me up. Poor Mr Life!
ReplyDeleteMy apologies to Mr. Life as, I too, laughed out loud at your last sentence! Thanks for the smile!
ReplyDeleteThought I posted a comment here last night...didn't make it apparently. Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed that post Isabelle - especially the last bit where Sirius is eating your hubby's dinner!! Sometimes you just can't win!
ReplyDeletePoor Mr Life! Cats will have their way.....
ReplyDeleteAnd we have just discovered that Bellus was indeed guilty of bringing in the local wildlife - we had been blaming the late lamented Zyra but a deceased sparrow turned up on our kitchen mat yesterday so he's been tried and convicted!