I love that I’m able to work from home…most of the time.
There are moments, however, when I would really like to be elsewhere.
Yesterday contained such a moment.
With the advent of fall, we’ve had an influx of mice into the house. I don’t tend to flip out about that kind of thing because (a) they’re relatively harmless, and (b) we have a great mouser on the premises. So when I noticed said great mouser (his name is George) planted firmly and with great focus in front of the piano, I figured I would let nature take its course.
I went about my business and left George to his.
Several hours later, George had taken up position in front of the couch. Same focus. Guessing that the mouse had moved, I tipped the couch back, George darted in, and he and mouse both disappeared down the stairs to the basement. So far, so good.
Until he brought it back upstairs a few minutes later.
And the horrible, high-pitched, panicked squeaking began.
My daughter, who was home with me at the time, bailed out the back door so she didn’t have to listen to it. I couldn’t listen to it (it’s one thing to know what’s going on in a distant part of the house, quite another to bear witness shudder). I grabbed a glass bowl from the cupboard and headed for the living room, where I found the mouse stretched out on the floor, unmoving. My rescue mission had become a clean-up operation.
Shooing George away, I placed the bowl over the mouse and went to get some tissue with which to pick it up. I returned to find the mouse, very much alive, doing laps around the inside of the bowl and George, who had now been joined by our older cat, watching in utter fascination. Back to rescue mission.
One cut-up cereal box later, I had a sheet of cardboard thin enough to slide under mouse and bowl, a traumatized daughter holding open the back door, two cats totally ticked with me for removing their entertainment, and a dog who had to be brought into the house because he had taken an unhealthy interest in the rescued rodent.
I’m guessing people who work in offices don’t generally have these issues…just sayin’. 😉
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