apodemus s. sylvaticus

which is nothing more than a fancy way of saying "field mouse" which is to say, i have one LIVING IN MY HOUSE.

picture it. there i am, merrily typing along on the keyboard this morning, when what should i see out of the corner of my eye? a small blob darting along the floor. naturally (naturellement!) i immediately looked to my right to re-focus. as i did, the aforementioned blob began scuttling toward me - i took one step backward in disbelief as it scuttled right by me, pausing only long enough to flip me (the giantess) a mouse birdie, then took off and hung a sharp right into my kitchen.

ran into the kitchen to find and eject the interloping critter, and he was gone. vanished, most likely under the stove. i looked for him, with no luck. so i guess we have a new member of the household...an unwelcome one, to be sure, but for the time being there's not a lot i can do.

later i'll pull out the stuff in the cabinets, try to corner him. this means war! i must arm myself with all the correct items with which to catch an interloping field mouse!

we've been down this particular road before, and while we did eventually get rid of the intruders it was at no small effort. mice are amazingly smart. maybe we should try, instead, to trap them. train them for the betterment of our society. they could be taught to do menial small tasks, such as picking up trash and disposing of it in a nearby container, complete with tiny built-in mouse ramp. or they could serve as guide mice for the blind, helping them to find small items they drop. or they could even help achieve world peace just by twitching their cute little noses and blinking their beady little eyes in just the right cadence to cause miniature brain seizures that would incapacitate the warring/violent part of everyone's brains.....maybe i shouldn't be so quick to judge this singular field mouse. maybe i should show him compassion. maybe i should help him find his role in this great big wonderful messy operation called Life.

maybe?


nah. he's going DOWN!