An irrelevant matter regarding a mouse

Since this is the final posting for the year 2011 on my blog, I thought I would reminisce about this past year, and then choose the most exciting thing that has happened in our family and write about that.  I got this idea from all of the TV pundits who have spent this past week talking about all of the important things in the nation and world that have happened this past year, but my subject is a particularly irrelevant matter if one lives in a city.  Remember the title of this blog is also about irrelevant matters

I need to state that I live in a rural area on the California coast along with some rather unpleasant neighbors – black widow spiders and rattlesnakes.  These spider neighbors are not much of a problem because we were taught and we teach those who have come after us that one never puts one’s hands or feet where one cannot see clearly that there are no obnoxious inhabitants there, and we also recognize the rather peculiar random pattern of their webs.

Although the hands and feet rule works for rattlesnakes as well, there is an additional help to keep them away from us, and that is a cat.  Now the cat does not go after the snakes personally, but they do go after the rodents that the snakes feed on, so, ipso facto, no rodents – no snakes.

Our mouser cat had gotten much too old, she is now 20 years old, to go out and hunt, so we acquired a kitten who has turned out to be a prolific hunter, which is what we really wanted, and for which we are really happy.  Sounds great?  Well, Big Mo likes to bring his catches into our bathroom with its shower that has a slightly sunken floor.  He figured out that the mice can’t make it out of the shower if he can manage to get them in there.  They sometimes get away from him before that.

One day the mouse got away from him, and my husband was in the bathroom trying to catch the mouse, which ran behind the toilet.  In the ensuing chase, that appliance that used to be in every bathroom, the toilet plunger, had been left out of the cupboard, and the plunger sort of fell over.  It didn’t go all the way down, but was tilted with the opening at the bottom touching the floor.

Voila!  The mouse ran into that wonderful escape hole!  My husband grabbed the plunger, flipped it up, took it outside and launched the mouse into a marvelous arc away from the house.  And there was born – the mouse-o-matic.  For further details on the shape of a mouse-o-matic, ask for them in the comments section.

I am writing this to benefit any reader who lives in the country and who has a problem with mice in the house, for whatever reason.  When chasing the mouse, tilt the plunger in front of the mouse, it runs in, flip it up, and outside send the mouse on the ride of its life away from the house.  It works about 80% of the time.  We do have a mouse trap for the other 20%, but the mouse-o-matic is much faster and more humane.  If you don’t live in the country and don’t have a mouse problem, we hope you have enjoyed this story.

With that, we in our house wish all of you a peace filled and very Happy New Year.