Mouse In The House

New Year's Eve was fun. Had about 30 or so people over and we played games, ate snacks and then prayed in the new year together. Most people had left by 1AM, but Davey and Janelle stayed and we talked until almost 3AM. As they were leaving, Janelle noticed something moving and said, "Do you want me to help you catch your mouse?" Apparently she thought we had a pet mouse to go with our ferret, ball python and bearded dragon. Only one problem - we don't!

So at 2:48AM on New Year's Day (technically) we set out to catch a mouse. It was under the piano and we couldn't get to it so I woke up Tyler and asked him to grab his snake figuring snakes eat mice right? So we haul out Samson the mouse killing snake and put him down at the last known address of the mouse invader. Small problem (or should I say big) - Samson is no longer a little snake. He's kinda fat and can't fit under the piano anymore. Ok, move the piano.

We move the piano and the mouse runs, jumps over Janelle's foot and makes a lap around my living room and realizes all the doors are closed, so it hides under the couch. I get Janelle a basket and Tyler a cooking lid to trap the mouse under (didn't want to squash it on the carpet so figured we'd catch it). We move the couch and it takes off again, squeaking out "can't catch me" as he runs around my living room. It runs onto the hardwood floor which is exactly when Tyler decides to try and capture it. He slams his tin lid down so hard it sounded like a cymbal crash and he woke up our house guests. Good morning everyone, it's 3AM.
Janelle finally corners and captures it under her bucket, I slide something under it and carry it into the boys room to drop the little menace into the snake cage and let it reap it's reward for taunting us. I sneak in, trying not to wake the other two boys. As I attempt to dump the mouse into Samson's lair, I watch him do a spinning, one-armed back flip off the edge of the bucket and land outside the cage! Now the mouse is loose in their room. Good thing we closed the door. Now me, Tyler, Davey and Janelle, grab the flashlights and start looking under and around stuff. When we can't see it, we finally turn on the light and start tearing the room apart, taking drawers out, unloading the closet, moving dressers. We see it move in the closet so focus our attention there. I know right where it is, but when I move the last bit of cover it has, it leaps something like 13 feet up and runs around the room behind another dresser.

Tanner is now up but we think we've got it cornered so everyone takes their places with some kind of containment device like a garbage can, bucket or lid. It's been 40 minutes and I'm ready to give this rodent as a treat to Samson. Heck at this point if we could catch it, I'd cover the stupid thing in chocolate if Samson wanted me too. We scare it out and Janelle's lightning fast reflexes put her bucket into motion and she traps the midnight scavenger. Victory is ours and to the victor go the spoils so we grab Samson and let him visit with our prisoner of war and then we let him eat the vanquished foe. Satisfaction and victory is mine.

The next morning, Chandler wakes up, knocks on my door and asks me - "Daddy, what happened to my room last night? It's messy" He slept through the whole thing.