Saturday night the cry went out.
“There’s a mouse in my shoes!” yelled Cat.
Lisa; the mighty mouse hunter leapt to her feet. Gavin looked confused.
Finally I was in my element. I can catch mice. No I am not a cat, I am a fat old lady who waddles about and spends most of my life stopping the couch from running away by sitting on it as hard as I can and occasionally saying “Whoa there big boy, you’re not going anywhere; its a big job but I have my faithful dog to help. Unless someone else has food, then I’m on my own.
Enough about couch sitting. Yes I may have dedicated my life to my career but before I guarded couches I was good at something else. Yes I am good at 2 things, I am probably a genius. I can catch stuff, little creepy stuff that makes others scream; mainly my mother. I can catch lizards, frogs, bugs and even occasionally non venomous spiders. I catch them and return them to the wild. And I have on a couple of previous occasions caught a wild mouse.
Gavin caught a mouse in our old house but that consisted of weeks of assiduously learning his preferred pathways and progressively building up a collection of traps; saucepans, bowls and cups, then carefully laying the traps out along the path & waiting for him to fall in. The mouse had to travel every time we turned on the oven because that is where he lived, he would return afterwards.
Have I mentioned we actually own cats.
Anyway the mouse finally fell in a bowl, Gavin raced to the bowl, snatched it up and took him outside the front door. Shutting the door he whooped in triumph and started walking back to bask in my adulation.
Cat opened the front door and asked ‘What’s happening outside?’
The mouse raced back inside straight over her foot.
Gavin seemed a little less keen on mouse hunting after that so we cohabited. Yes occasionally the mouse scared the living daylights out of the cats but after we started feeding them on the table where they were safe, this happened less often.
In his defense at the time we had Chase (RIP) Echo’s brother, not Orion the Burmese tiger.
Anyway I have caught mice in my bare hands, well I’ve caught 4; not including pet mice of course.
Fortunately Cat has the tidiest room in the house so when Pixie chased the mouse into the shoes in Cat’s wardrobe I knew it was only a matter of time and moving furniture. I carefully moved furniture to block exits and chased him down. You have to be careful not to be too relentless or the mouse could die of shock.
Because I am getting older I brought a cake tin to trap him, but I didn’t need it. I’ve still got the old grab. Anyway the cake tin was handy to keep him in.
Alex; bless her daft little heart, demanded we call the council to let them know. We explained it was 10:00 pm on a Saturday night and they wouldn’t be there. She was appalled but shut up, so all good. Gavin took the mouse down to the bush at the end of our street. He is the man after all and walking around at night is a bit scary.
When he moved the cake tin so the mouse could escape it climbed his arm instead, but he finally convinced it to stay in the bush.
The only question we have is:
Was this a house mouse or a native ‘Spinifex Hopping Mouse’?
There is a lot of good information on the Bush Heritage Australia site. By the way this is my favourite charity and one of only two I have a regular payment system with, 3 if you count Lotto (says Gavin). It’s great it sends out a lot of good news; look at what you’ve done stories, instead of relentless misery.
So, I would love to hear your opinion.
autistsix 
*thank goodness* at least one person in the house is ocd, or i would never trust a cake tin 😦
of course this is cultural naivete, all aussies keep wild mice in their cake tins, it keeps them fresh! (dont listen to them, alex)
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Of course mice in the cake tins, Kangaroos in flour sacks, geckos in the shoes & snakes in the beds. That’s why we had to move mousie out of the shoes.
Alex likes being called daft. She just lost all chance at evilest person in the world (Cat & Tash are still duking it out) and the Dafties are her only chance at an award.
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to help myself keep track, ive come up with the phrase:
“mum can tie knots fine, sir gavin– smokie stands beside”
(m=ct) mice -> cake tins
(k=fs) kangaroos -> flour sacks
(g=s) geckos -> shoes
(s=b) snakes -> beds
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But this one is easier to remember, there is a song about it; red backs -> toilet seat. BTW a red back is our 2nd most venomous spider.
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and, my ar*e will never touch a toilet seat again.
(whats the most venomous?)
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learned something new today. the 2nd most venomous australian spider is related to (and looks remarkably like) our 2nd most venomous spider, the black widow– and their bites lead to the same condition.
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The most venomous is the funnel web, previously only found in Sydney but spreading slowly. Neither will kill you if you get medical attention within an hour or two. So… stop being a wuss. In fact no venomous creature in Australia will kill you if you can get to a hospital in an hour. Hooray for medicine.
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“The most venomous is the funnel web, previously only found in Sydney but spreading slowly. Neither will kill you if you get medical attention within an hour or two. So… stop being a wuss.”
alright, but i really dislike the way they drop down out of the sky in a giant woven funnel that pulls the roofs off houses and occasionally sucks dingos and crocs spinning into their enormous swirling web. steve left everyone in the tent in that episode. its a good thing he knew how to tie knots or robert and terri would still be aloft.
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You are thinking of the Darwin Funnel Web; there are few crocs in Sydney, unless Parliament is out. The Sydney Funnel Web lives underground, so Sydney is filled with hidden caverns leading past an irate spider & leading directly to Hell. Fortunately they have also spread to Canberra (our version of Washington DC).
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That is great. I don’t know where to start my comment and where to end it. So I’ll just say it is fascinating and sad and a bit awkward a mouse living behind a stove. Sweeter still that you know this and leave him be. Does he have a name yet?
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Our old house where Mousie lived in the oven was a complete wreck, we lived with him a couple of years but then he moved out without leaving a forwarding address. We left a couple of months later but we left a small note, but I don’t know how far he can travel so we are giving up hope of him visiting. We also had a spider in the shower so we had to run the cold water so he could climb clear of the spray before we turned on the hot, We also had to help him if he fell over a tricky bit on his way to his safe spot. We don’t like killing things and crumbling hovels don’t keep out the wildlife. Thanks for visiting.
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That is so beautiful.
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were you going for a poem? it sounded like a poem.
our mouse in our old house, he was such a mess
we shared but moved out with no forward address
a couple months later we left a small note
as far as he travels we all gave up hope
with cold water warning our spider of hot
we nudged if he fell over to his safe spot
we don’t like to kill things we’d rather be nice
and crumbling hovels don’t keep out wildlife*
(its another to the meter of night before christmas)
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Thank you!
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I wish I had written a poem your poem is fantastic.
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you did write it! i found a poem in it (too many words were close to rhyming or having a meter) and took out the parts that made it less obvious it was there. look at the words, you put them there first.
the poem version reminded me of black box so i made a rap version, but i cant find the version of the song i wrote it for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo3kp5BLF6Q
its the same guy but the version of the song i know has these lyrics: “Cause acid house it’s plain and it’s simple
Pump up the bass and raise up the treble
Send to the crowd on the floor in the middle
Rub-a-dub-dub on your spots till it tickles”
the mouse in our house, he was such a mess
we moved out and left no forward address
a couple months later we left a small note
as far as he travels we all gave up hope
with cold water warning of hot
we nudged our spider to a safer spot
we don’t like killing we’d rather be nice
and crumbling hovels don’t keep out wildlife
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I am a genius, I keep trying to convince my family, but they just roll their eyes.
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thats probably catalan; in spanish they roll the rs instead.
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Awesome talent. I’m way too uncoordinated to catch a mouse. One of the cats is a killer. The other is “catch-and-release”. It’s kind of funny that in a place that I think of as housing some of the deadliest critters around, girls still scream at a mouse. 🙂
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I know my mum was up all night hearing mouse sounds in her room.
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