EEEEEEEKKKKK

We live in the country. We have a cat. In 3 years, we've never had a mouse problem. 

UNDERSTAND?

Our wonderful pest control guy-Larry, says the scent of our cat is a good deterrent for the resident field mice. Sounds good to me! Anya is a pretty laid back lady. Occasionally she teases the mice out in the field, but I've rarely seen her lift a paw for much other than a bath, but that doesn't mean she doesn't earn her keep....that good ole cat scent is paying her rent!

UNTIL YESTERDAY!

We also have a real porch. Our house was built in a different era. Back when people went visitin' without calling ahead and sat on the porch to cool down since air conditioning was unheard of. On rainy days, we close a makeshift gate and trap the kids on the porch and let them play to their heart's content! I had things to do yesterday afternoon and so instead of joining the boys, I propped open the storm door and went to work inside. One ear trained on their toddler chatter, of course.

One load of laundry into my tasks I look up to see THE CAT with a LIVE AND ACTIVE mouse in the dining room. She had been outside of this I'm 99.99% sure. She then caught herself a playmate and brought it in MY HOUSE. I reacted with a cool head (of course) screaming for Tim to come quick. This got the cat's attention and she LEFT THE MOUSE and took off for a hiding place from my wrath. The rodent was now free to roam and possibly set up house. 

I BEG TO DIFFER.

Tim, acting the more level headed of the 2, trapped the mouse behind the bookcase. He then acquired mouse catching tools-- broom, dust pan, and long arm pincher. 20 minutes later that small, less than threatening squeaker, was caught and released outside to the amusement of the dogs. 

THE CAT slept outside last night.