Apparently the household spirits do not want me to feel bereft, because shortly after I laid Stinky to rest, a mouse scurried out from under my desk and disappeared into the closet. We have periodic mice incursions in the basement and the attic, and they've shown up a couple of times in the kitchen, but this was the first rodent visitation in my boudoir, ever. I can't say I was very happy about it. I was even less happy an hour later when I was in the kitchen feeding Pearl and she suddenly lurched away from her bowl in pursuit of, yes, another mouse. Or maybe it was the same mouse and he just likes to follow me around.
In any case, two mouse sightings in a morning is a bit much, even for a vermin-tolerant soul like me. I appreciate the cosmic desire to fill the void left by Stinky, but I really do have all the critters I need, thank you. I bought some of those fancy no-kill traps and anybody I nab will be re-homed to the great outdoors. (For the record, I have no ethical qualms about killing mice, but I am not feeling sufficiently bloodthirsty to do the job at the moment. Sometimes you feel like being the Angel of Death, sometimes you don't.)
Dessert Still-Life, Georg Flegel (1566-1638). Image from Web Gallery of Art.*
*The WGA analysis of this painting reads like something written by an over-caffeinated art history undergrad. Unintentionally hilarious. You can see it here.
4 comments:
How mad am I, for those paintings...
I could peruse them for hours.
I only object to mice when they run over my bare feet at the wee hours of the morning; they have very cold paws !
This winter, I feared that they might be terrorising my guinea pigs...
If they were upsetting your hundsies, I can see where you would be put out !
It's only when I feel that I am overrun, that I become annoyed.
When I was a teenager, I had to sleep in a barn loft, with my mother, for awhile.
She HATED the barn mice-
But I rather liked them.
You know, if I could litter-train my mice, I might be fine with them hanging around. They could just eat the dogs' kibble--I buy it by the ton as it is. But mouse droppings are not a welcome sight, even for a domestically challenged type like me.
Mice in barns and in the woods are extremely charming. If they could just be persuaded to stay there ...
I would freak completely out if I had a mouse in the house. It's never happened to me before. You know what I do occasionally get? You won't believe this. Some kind of worms! I think they must go from the trees down the chimney into the living room. Junie kills them for me.
Love the paintings!
Worms, really? Not slugs or caterpillars? I can't say I've ever gotten a worm in the house, though we do get slugs, lizards, snakes, etc. Glad you have Junie to defend you!
Post a Comment