Rodent Intruder

I didn't expect to be blogging again quite this soon.

Last night, at around 4:00 am we woke up to the sounds of our cats crashing about in the living room. This was more than the usual late night friskiness, so I got up to check out the situation. As I enter the living room I notice that Sophie has a mouse (or baby rat, I have no idea) trapped in a corner. Sassy isn't far behind her. At first they weren't sure if they were in trouble or not. Obviously, I wasn't going to be sleeping until this situation was resolved. Once they saw that I was going to be joining them in this hunt, the two cats immediately fell in line and we set about chasing out the rodent.

At first I thought it was going to be easy - I startled it and the mouse ran toward the patio door, which was open. This was my fault, we don't normally leave the door open all night and presumably this is how the mouse came inside. My luck ran out fast though, about as fast as the mouse as he ran past the door and behind the desk. I hopped up on the sofa so I could lift the drapes to the window - I didn't want to lose track of the little beastie. In the process, I kicked over a glass on the coffee table. Of course, it broke.

By now Holly wants to know what is going on and if I am okay. I let her know we have a mouse and continue with the hunt. The cats managed to keep it contained to the desk area while I picked up the worst of the glass and got socks and shoes on my feet. Then it was my job to try forcing the mouse to retreat back out the patio door. But the cats didn't get that memo. They had blood on their lips and were liking the taste. Instead of letting the mouse go from the desk to the door, they were waiting at the edge of the desk for the first chance to strike.

This sent the mouse back at me, jumping. At this time I'd like to point out that when a human attempts to catch a mouse, it's a lot like a game of hot potato. You don't really want to be touching it. Cats on the other hand, well to them it's more like tackle football, but with a tasty, moving piece of steak. The steak mouse took a leap into the middle of the room and made a run for it, with the two cats in hot pursuit.

We were very VERY lucky that night. We were all very lucky that the mouse headed toward the main entrance of the condo and NOT into the bedroom, where Holly was in bed, listening to the commotion. Still, once I saw they had the mouse cornered by the door I knew I had an opportunity. I opened the door and chased the mouse out of the condo. Finally I could close the patio door and put my pants on.

I quickly dressed, grabbed the broom and headed out in the hall after the mouse. I couldn't just leave it there to be discovered by someone else, or even worse for it to enter another condo. I propped open the main door with some papers that had been delivered and started my search. I found the mouse hiding over by the mail boxes and started my chase again.

By now I was getting the hang of things and with the broom to extend my reach I was able to coax the mouse over to the right corner so that he could find the door. Once he was outside he disappeared into the darkness faster than I could have kept track. I closed the door, returned to the condo and praised the cats after updating Holly on the status of the mouse. It was about that time when Louise woke up, wondering what was going on.

While I was able to go back to bed and fall back asleep quickly, the cats were way too hyped up to think about sleeping. I'm pretty sure they stayed on patrol for the rest of the night - just in case.