Screaming Like a Little Girl

So I woke up early this morning. Just lying in bed with my eyes closed. Minding my own business. When I hear the cat in the closet, like she's looking for something.

"Cat, what did you bring in, now? Minnie?" She looks at me and goes back to a searching the corner of the closet. "Cat?" She looks at me and goes back to looking. "Minnie?" She comes to me and curls up next to me with her head on my shoulder and sleeps.

I figured it was probably one of those large moths that she loves to bring in, but I had better check.
I kneel down near the closet and Minnie comes over and stands on a crooked box in the closet, looks at the corner and then at me and then gets out of the closet. OK, that's where she last saw whatever it is. I move the box and a shoe and...I see something "slither" in the corner. "Holy crap, Cat, what did you bring in!!" I bring my suitcase into the room and stand in it (don't want something slithering over my foot!). I move some more shoes (who knew I had that many?) and out scurries a mouse and then back into the closet in the other corner to hide under another shoe. Ahh, it was the tail I had seen. That makes it a little better as I deal much better with furry. Only it suddenly scurrying out scared the crap out of me and I scream like a little girl, go to back up, and trip over my own feet. Ha!

I had just done some laundry so I had some clean, nicely folded clothes in the closet. I don't want to move the clothes and have it pop out so I get a hanger and lift each piece of clothing out.

Meanwhile, I had closed my bedroom door and opened the patio door and had told Minnie to "Get it, get the mouse" however, upon seeing the door open, she decided that she was bored and would rather go outside. I brought her back in and pointed her at the closet, but she started doing her, 'I'm not happy and I will kill you while you're sleeping meow' so I let her go. She took a few steps away, I flung a shoe out of the closet with the hanger and it hit the box which drove Minnie to take refuge under the bed. She came out from under the bed, supervised me for a few seconds, and then went outside.

So, I remove everything that the mouse can hide under and it looks like it will come out of the closet (I had tried to block off the room so the only way it could go was outside) and it went into the bi-fold closet door. I got it out of there and it went into the other corner of the closet. I didn't want it in that corner since it would be too easy to follow the wall and get into my room or under the door into the house, so I used the hanger to stop it.

He cowered in the back corner for a while and then...went to climb.up.the.wall! Of course, I don't want it up there in my clothes on the shelf nor do I want it on the higher ground so, I panicked. I grabbed the dresses in the corner and flung them around screaming, "No! No! Minnie! Minnie! Minnie! No!" and it scurried out the door, across the yard, and under the fence two feet from the point that Minnie enters the yard. I slam the patio door and step into the living room as Minnie comes in through her door. My first thought was that she had been like Lucifer in "Cinderella", waiting with cupped paws on the other side of the fence waiting for it to run to her, but she didn't have it when she came in. Phew!

It was only while I was in the shower that I realized she came in then because I had unconsciously screamed her name and she was just responding to it by coming home.

I called my dad to tell him of my excitement and he said I should keep some sticky traps on hand. I can't do that. Just let them stick to it, squirming about, ripping skin and whiskers to try to free themselves. And I can't do what he does which is take them outside and hit them with a shovel. I understand it's the humane thing, but I'm not doin' it. Chances are, it'll get stuck when I'm at work and then the cat will get stuck trying to get it and then I'll have to get a dog and pretty soon I'll have an elephant and I'm not tall enough to hit it over the head with a shovel.

Anyway, never a dull moment.