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Mouse-hunt, or three gals and a tiny mouse

Ever seen the movie "Mouse-hunt" or "Providence's" episode
where vet Jim wrecks the kitchen while chasing a mouse?
Ever thought that was funny but too unreal? Well, let me
tell you this.... Wrecking a house in search of a mouse is
very, very realistic, as I found out yesterday.

Yesterday I decided to drive my mother to my aunt. It's
always fun visiting Ria, but we couldn't have suspected
exactly HOW much fun this visit would bring.

As we chatted a bit Ria told us that her cat, Sterre, had
brought in a life mouse the other day. Sterre had carefully
put the mouse on the bed when Ria woke up, but the mouse
saw its chance and ran off. As we heard this story and
learned that Ria wanted to wait for her husband to get
home, to catch the mouse, I suggested we catch that little
mouse ourselves. Thought it would be an easy job, after all
there were three of us and just one tiny, little mouse......

Up to the bedroom where we soon discovered the little
trespasser. On hands and knees I crawled after the mouse,
towel ready to through over it. But wait.... it turned! It
ran between my legs and rested in the V-shape my boots
made. Gotcha, we thought. I looked up, looked back....
where was the mouse? None of us had seen it running off. Eh-
oh.... it didn't crawl into my jeans did it? A quick check,
but no, no mouse. Searched each corner of the bedroom (a
small one fortunately), but no mouse! Really was a weird
sensation. Where could it be?

Ria suggested that perhaps it had jumped into the bed. So
away with the sheets. Carefully we peeled the bed, but
again... no mouse. Hmmmm.... maybe in the matrass of the
bed? We unlocked the two segments of the bed, turned them
over, but again... nothing. But it had to be there! It just
had to! We discovered a little crack at the bottom of the
bed-bottom. Carefully I inserted my arm and checked for
anything soft and furry. Soft it was, but no mouse.
We even unscrewed the backboard of the bed to see if it hid
there. Again nothing....

Another option... a chest. Maybe it gotten into the chest?
It's amazing that a mousehunt can show you a person's
bedroom secrets (not that there were any at Ria's, but it
could have been...). But after an hours search we gave up.
We let the cat in, in the hope that perhaps she could sniff
out the mouse and went downstairs for some coffee and a
good laugh. (Was there really no hidden camera?)

After coffeebreak we decided to give it a last chance and
restore the bedroom to its former grandeur. Whilst fixing
the bed (the cat had great fun hiding under the sheets and
making fake attacks at air), we laughed at our craziness.
The cat got in the way so we pushed her off the bed. And
then I saw the mouse again, jumping into the room from
behind a closet. But since Sterre was in the room the mouse
jumped right back behind the closet. A quick grab at the
box we hoped we could trap the mouse in, a towel at hand,
we moved the closet and the mouse jumped back and forth
between one end and the other. It hid under the closet
again and when I tried to shove part of the box underneath
it and held my other hand ready to grab the mouse, it
suddenly jumped on top of my hand and dashed into the room.
We threw the cat out of the room (couldn't stand the
thought of the little mouse being eating in front of me)
and chased the mouse across the room, again.
Amazing how high these little creatures can jump. And what
speed they develop. Ria and mom were at the other of the
bed and the mouse underneath it. I grabbed the stick of the
swab and moved it under the bed to chase the mouse from
under it. But each time it came back. Again we lost the
mouse, but then when Ria picked up the box the mouse was in
it! Of course it didn't stay there. It raced back under the
bed. I moved the swab stick again, but did it with too much
force. I accidentally swooped the mouse off its feet and it
bumped against the wall where it quickly recovered and
moved under the bed again.
(Sounds like a slapstick, right?)

To make a long, long story short... after nearly two hours
we finally drove the little mouse in a corner and I very,
very slowly approached it with a towel. The little critten
stared at me with its huge eyes, as if it was
saying: "let's end this, ok? It's been fun." I managed to
catch the mouse in the towel and put it in the box. What a
small thing. I've seen spiders bigger than that!

As Ria and mom got the bedroom back in order I went
downstairs and noticed that Hans (Ria's husband) had
arrived. I showed him the mouse and then released it in the
backyard, where hopefully no cat can get to it.

The fun part was that we realised how silly this whole
mousehunt was. Three grown women crawling on hands and
knees, shouting and screaming over a little mousie. Writing
it down and reading it back doesn't pay tribute to the
slapstick we had. But if you want to see it, try the
movie "Mousehunt". We didn't actually trash the whole
house, but breaking down and building up a bedroom in our
attemps was ridiculous enough.

Happy hunting, folks!