Mouse Tales (Updated)

Or, Tails to be precise.

 

We have another mousie in the housie.  This time, it's in the kitchen.  I was standing at the stove cooking dinner when I heard the dog flap.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something small & grey & furry come through the flap, run behind the dog door block and hope up inside the pantry door.  Yep, we got another one!  This time, I don't think it was after food.  I think it was fleeing for it's life, in an effort to get away from the Chupacabra who was in the garage at the time.  Frasier came in shortly afterwards, he was obviously looking for something but he wasn't frantic about it.  The mouse might not have actually gotten into the pantry itself, but probably is underneath the pantry because of the way the pantry bottom is constructed.  Bill put a trap in the pantry anyway, and also underneath the china cabinet.  They are loaded with cheese and peanut butter, so they are out of puppy reach.  Frasier started haunting the kitchen after that, but that was because I was cooking dinner and he was trying to bum some lettuce off of me.  He could have had fresh meat, but no - he wanted lettuce! That's my boy.

 

Our church cancelled services today, which we expected.  When Bill got Otter from work yesterday afternoon, he said that they main roads were ok for the most part but that the neighborhood was really bad.  Otter and I decided to attempt to get out today so we could get our Angel Tree gifts.  The way her schedule is for the week today was really the best day for us to shop.  So we left about 11:15 or so.  The neighborhood was icy but passable.  Most of the main streets were mixed between partially cleared and iffy but we were ok.  We went to Toy R Us, which wasn't the best parking lot.  We also went to the mall, Walgreen's (it was snowing slightly when we got there), Target, the Dollar Store and Wallyworld.  We did manage to get what we were after, but it was not easy.  Our Angel is an 8-year old girl who wanted Barbie clothes.  Which are harder to find than it sounds, mostly the stores have dolls and clothes sold together.  We did find a few sets of doll clothes, but we also got a few other things.  Crayons, coloring books, stickers, a jump rope, a scarf/glove/hat set and I think a couple of other things but I can't remember at the moment.  I also got what I'm giving Bill, aside from the hot water heater we bought last week as our "to each other" gift!  I got a few ideas for Otter's gift as well.  We also went to Big Lots, I almost forgot about that.

 

It never got up to 30 degrees, or at least I don't think it did.  We will be below freezing for the next couple of days and have a chance of flurries tomorrow.  We should be above freezing mid-week and "warmer" by Thursday to Friday.  Warmer is a relative term, it won't be what I would really consider to be warm.  But mid-40's is probably going to feel much better, after being below freezing and having ice on the ground for over a week.

(Update:  8:45.  The mouse problem has been solved.  At least, this one has been.  There will be another one at some point, there usually is.)