Mice.

With what passes as winter around here the field mice have started coming in, not a lot of them but enough to be annoying. I've found holes in avocados and bananas in the morning from them on the counter. Most annoying is they've found my bucket of walnuts in the closet I've been drying, I cannot begin to tell you the racket a mouse  makes chewing through the shells, I've tried to launch surprise attacks but when I whip open the door there's no one there. I'm sure it's sitting behind the vacuum cleaner happily munching my walnut while holds back little mouse giggles about how upset I'm getting. Before anyone gets all crazy about mice in the house you need to remember this is not our first rodeo. We moved into a house once so infested with mice they didn't even bother to hide most of the time - one night we were sitting in the living room and the cat was crouched in front of my stereo speaker. David picked it up, shook it hard and a mouse came tumbling out looking offended at it's unexpected ejection, it took off with the cat hot on it's heels. The cats got so tired of mouse catching David would point at the mouse - Vincent would look at him like he was not sure who's turn it was to get it. 

I'm sure your thoughts are now straying to Bob the Cat who is the worst stray cat in the universe. She barfs up anything that costs less than a dollar a can - at this point in time her diet consists of Fancy Feast Dry food ($9 for 3 pounds) and Sheba wet food which comes in a divided plastic container so when the cat gets fed half the can for breakfast and dinner it never has to deal with "old food". Bob's definition of Old Food is anything that has been in her bowl for over 10 minutes. And now she's having some sort of weird hair loss issue so she has to go to the vet. I called them and made her an appointment, they seemed to be delighted I have yet another little money maker for them. David will have to see if he can get her records from PA too and then I'll have to bring her in the big dog cage because she will not get into a cat carrier. I'm annoyed already and her appointment is not til next week. You probably think she earns her keep by catching mice, don't you?

Yeah, about that......

Bob could only catch a mouse if it was drunk and in a wheel chair and even then I'd only give her a 50% chance of success. We've caught them all with traps which kill them instantly but the other night......

I heard it snap about midnight, Bob was actually in the bed next to me snuggled under the covers cat snoring. Then I heard the trap shaking around, they're plastic so they make a lot of noise and they're very loud when it goes off. I looked at Bob to see if she was going to get that, but she continued snoring, the dogs and David slumbering and that stupid trap frantically banging on the counter. Ugh. When I got up Bob was accidentally woken so she padded into the kitchen with me and jumped up on the counter. I snapped on the light and there, with it's little hand stuck in the trap was a mouse trying to look invisible while giving tiny tugs to free itself. What was Bob doing - was she sizing up the situation? Dispatching the mouse for me? Nope. She was sitting about 4 inches away from the mouse eating her Fancy Feast Dry food since she needed a little nosh before making any decisions. The mouse boggled it's eyes back and forth while continuing to wiggle it's hand, by then David got up because every time I  got near the trap it would panic. I HAD TO PICK UP BOB TO MAKE HER STOP EATING SO DAVID COULD GET THE MOUSE. David threw a towel over the whole business, carried the mouse and trap outside and released it, it scampered off all four limbs intact. Bob finished her kibble and came back to bed since she was full and David reset the trap. We're guessing Mouse Catching is just not in Bob's job description.