Dead Mouse Running

Last night Miss Sunshine was digging through the linen cupboard, in a box of old baby rugs and stuff. When she screamed and jumped back I thought she'd found a dirty great big Huntsman spider or something. When she could finally speak again, she informed me she'd found a mouse. Not a dirty great big spider but a wreaker of of havoc disguised in the somewhat cuteness of a tiny furry body.

What to do with a mouse in your house, cornered in a box it can't jump out of? Well, first you have to catch the thing. Miss Sunshine suggested tongs, but unlike a recent reflexes activity in class, my reflexes were not so in tune with a mouse.

We emptied the box of its contents, leaving something for the mouse to hide under until we were all prepared. A small bucked of hot, hot water; a pair of tongs; an ice cream container; a folder. These are the tools of mouse eradication. We removed the last piece of cloth from the box and caught the mouse under the ice cream container. Then we got a folder to slide under so we could move the mouse into the bucket of hot water. You know, that thing swam it's little heart out....until he met with the tongs that we held him under with.

Miss Mischief valiantly carried the bucket and the mouse outside and tipped him over the back fence, where the previous drowned mouse was deposited. Fertiliser for the nursery behind us....or kookaburra food....whichever happens first.

I have been asked, previously, how I could possibly do such a thing. Easy. That mouse was in people space. Had he stayed outside, his life would remain intact. And why drowning instead of squashing? Again, easy. I don't like the idea of cleaning up mouse guts in the process of demousing my house!