Mystery

To start from the beginning, when I got up this morning, I noticed an over abundance of shoes in the front hallway. It appears the cats spent the night pulling out shoes from under the parsons bench in my front hall. I didn't have a lot of time before work, but I checked it out with a flashlight and couldn't see any toys under there. I told them they were on their own.

When I came home from work (about 1/2 an hour later - apparently I wasn't scheduled to work today after all) the shoes were out again. I still wasn't convinced there was a toy under there, but it seemed a harmless enough occupation for them so I left them alone.

Late in the morning I glanced over and all I could see was the tail and back legs of one of the cats. He was pretty serious about getting his toy. I wished him luck.

A little later I heard him in the hallway, playing with his toy. Being curious, I checked to see what toy was causing such a fuss. The toy was a little mouse - a somewhat frantic little mouse.

I yelled at the cat to back off - he looked at me like I was crazy - and then I grabbed a bowl to put over the mouse. It took a little longer to find a piece of cardboard to slip between the bowl and the floor and by this time all five cats were circling the bowl like sharks.

I shooed them away and took the mouse out to the back of the yard were there's lots of brush and trees. And then, of course, I spent the rest of the day worrying about the poor little mouse, outside, alone in the cold.

The mystery, however, is where did it come from in the first place? Did it somehow get in from the outside? Or has it been here all along? The husband is all for putting out mouse poison, figuring where there's one mouse there'll be more. I say, if there's any other mice crazy enough to set up housekeeping in a house with 5 cats, then they're my kind of crazy.