A Mouse In The House

field mouse on tree

I walked into the kitchen, turned the corner around the center island and stopped in my tracks. There, on the rug before the back door, I saw a mouse! I called out to anyone and everyone to come quick! Mrs. Sayuri and Mr. Happy Feet came hurrying in. After a little deliberation, we three agreed upon a plan of catch and release. I couldn’t bring myself to do the alternative…

box

The chubby mouse was hardly even moving – he sat there making nibbling noises – seemingly oblivious to us. Even still, I quietly crept up on it and quickly dropped a cardboard box over him. Then I got a newspaper and carefully slid it underneath the box between the rug and mouse. Once he was in between the newspaper and the box, I flipped the box over and slipped out the back door with it.

field mouse in a cardboard box

We decided to release him in the back of the property – the further away from the barn the better. I let him go near the great big tree out back and expected him to scurry away, but he didn’t. He acted very lethargic. He seemed to almost be sleeping – in fact, we never saw him open his eyes once.

field mouse climbing tree

Then finally he started trying to climb up the tree.

field mouse climbing tree

He kept trying and then loosing his grip and falling back off.

field mouse

I finally got him with a stick and a metal bowl, and moved him somewhere else. I didn’t want to touch him even though he was pretty cute looking. I set him under a tarp covering a manure pile.

children outside

It’s still a mystery to us as to why he was acting so strangely for a mouse, but at any rate, we enjoyed seeing a one up close. We even tried to feed it some cheese but it wasn’t even interested!

Some Mouse Reads

I thought I’d share two fun books with mice in them that we’ve enjoyed reading together:

  • There’s a Mouse in My House by Sheree Fitch (A fun rhyming book about a boy who is given the task of killing a mouse found in his house and how he finds a way around that)
  • Mouse & Mole And The Year-Round Garden by Doug Cushman (So great! The story is cute and there are facts along the bottom of each page to explain the science behind what happens in the garden)

One Response

  1. Auntie J
    Auntie J November 13, 2012 at 10:31 pm |

    Nice documentation of a mouse in the house.

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