Twas
in the Hours as Wee as a Mouse
It's very early
Christmas Eve, into the wee hours, and all the creatures are stirring, because
of the Mouse.
Robin Cat had carried Mouse into the cabin and set her
on the living room floor to play the cat versus mouse game. Lily Cat hurried over to join in, usually the more avid hunter. This is approximately when House Security
noticed the policy violation and began closely monitoring the situation. Though largely keeping her cool, House
Security began to experience a threat level approaching mild human panic. Even bouncers have their limits.
To initiate the games, Mouse ran off
a short way. Lily immediately cornered
Mouse beside the Cat Jail and carried her to the bathtub and hopped in. Robin followed and all three were soon in the
tub, just standing there on eight little and four tiny feet. The tub is the usual Mouse repository and
destination when Robin or Lily can sneak one indoors past House Security, and,
for the moment, all was still, a prelude, but to what?
By now they were being observed
closely by the House Detective, who doubles as
House Security. There was no
panic. She knew exactly the risks and what
to do, though was a bit leery. However, without
hesitation, in a closer brush with Mouse than preferred, she lifted Lily and
Robin one at a time out of the tub and removed them from the tiny bathroom and
shut the door. Thereby Mouse's life was
preserved. It would also give House Security
and the House Detective time to think. Meanwhile,
the cats paced impatiently nearby, adrenaline flowing through their dilated vessels.
After quick deliberation, Mouse 911 was called.
First, there was no answer. "Answer your phone!" reverberated
soundlessly through the ether. A second phone number is tried, and
contact is made. The stage is set. Soon all the actors will be in
place.
Mouse 911 arrives within minutes and discusses the situation
with Ms. Mouse 911. As he's expertly
briefed, his vision sweeps the room. He
notices Robin is detained in Cat Jail, a kennel in the general population
area. He notices the bedroom door is closed
and assumes Lily is in isolation. "Good
call", he thinks. He's worked with
House Security before and is impressed with her threat assessments and general
first responder professionalism. There
had been, however, that "bird flying around house" disturbance, but
birds are another threat level entirely for Ms. Mouse 911 and her security
team.
|
The briefing having been completed
and a couple of wildly hopeful plans having been floated, Mouse 911 enters the diminutive
bathroom and closes the door behind him to the sound of bullfight trumpets
flaring in his head. He's brought gloves
and a cardboard box and is ready for anything, perhaps even a mouse, but Mouse
has other ideas.
Where's Mouse? How did she
climb the tub walls? Isn't that
impossible? Mouse 911 scans the bathroom
for clues to her whereabouts. There are
no stockings she could be hiding in, hung with care or not. There are several places she could be
nestling in though, snugly at that, but there was no clatter to help settle the
matter and nothing to his wondering eyes did appear.
Mouse 911 now searches the bathroom
more methodically for clues. Where would Mouse 911 hide if he were a
Mouse? His gaze fixes upon the corner
behind the sink. He lifts the small pink
pail there. There she goes, running along the baseboard back toward the
tub, a furry gray streak with her winter coat fully grown in and a long mouse
tail! She's cute! She's gone! She's become invisible
again. Moving the small metal shelves near the tub away from the wall,
there's her tail! Now gone again!
Having looked and relooked pointlessly for 20 minutes
for a rather invisible Mouse, in the litter box, on the shelves, in the
medicine cabinet, under a plunger, inside various small pails, and behind the
toilet scrub brush holder, and moving everything movable at least three times, Mouse
911 is beginning to doubt his senses. Though usually not one to give up or
get discouraged, he admits to himself Mouse is too smart for him and calls for
Plan B to be activated.
Ms. Mouse 911 agrees and stands down House
Security and releases Robin and Lily back into the community without
restriction. They head straight into the
bathroom, and the door is shut behind them.
Robin is a sleek lithe part-Russian
Blue athletic danseur of a cat, a handsome serious young man with strong communication
skills, who strongly resembles Mikhail Baryshnikov if Baryshnikov had somehow
been turned into a sharp-clawed patrol cat.
Lily is a compact beauty, a sweet
Holstein-marked black and white fireball spitfire sweetheart, alternatingly cuddly
and commanding, a lighter-than-air gymnast who in much of her spare time seems to be comprised almost entirely
of one tightly flexed muscle ready to uncoil.
The two are longtime companions and intermittent
sparring partners. They are best friends and sometimes sleep spooning one
another and wake up fighting. It works
for them. They also between them have
two expert noses and are an experienced Mouse-hunting tandem. Mouse's
chances of evasion have slimmed greatly. She'd probably take a plea at
the moment. "Let me walk out of here, and you'll never see me
again. I swear!"
Peeking in, Mr. and Mrs. Mouse 911 right away see that
Robin and Lily have converged on Mouse, who is hiding, not behind, but under
the toilet scrub brush holder in its corner. Mouse 911 makes a mental
note of that. Mouse 911 now reenters the
bathroom and closes the door behind him, clearly hearing a rousing chorus of Olé!
Four of the five known mammals in
the house, not counting any living within the walls who would no doubt be
listening attentively to the proceedings, are now squared off in cramped
confrontation, with Mrs. Mouse 911 on the outside reconfiguring her security
arrangements and hoping at least one of the four knows what they're doing.
Mouse 911 takes and holds a breath and lifts the toilet
scrub brush holder. Using his jaws, Robin instantly snatches Mouse from
the floor, head first, with only her tail sticking out of his mouth. Now
what? Open Robin's jaws and grab Mouse with gloved hand? Or pick up
Robin and carry them both outdoors? Since there are two sets of sharp
teeth involved in the first option, Mouse 911 opts for the more logistically
challenging cat lift, though unsure if it's ever been successfully tried
before.
With history possibly about to be made, Mouse 911
picks up Robin, holds him out in front of himself, steps out of the bathroom,
and Mouse, lively and quick, immediately escapes Robin's jaws and suddenly
appears standing sideways across the back of Robin's neck. Robin, still
being held up in mid air, is stymied and left hanging, literally.
Robin's untenuous position aside, Mouse 911 faces a
moment of truth. There are a hundred
safe hiding places Mouse can find within seconds. Any second now a vigorous cat squirm could
occur and Mouse could escape in a squeaker. Mouse faces her moment of
truth too, but Mouse 911 is the first to act.
Robin is quickly set down, and before he can execute a danseur's grand jeté, with Mouse riding sidesaddle on his neck, in a lightning reflex, a flash, a twinkling, a
gloved hand gently but firmly enough closes around Mouse's soft abdomen and neck. No one wants to be smushed or bitten, and
Mouse didn't ask to be brought indoors in the first place. Mouse 911 is
merely in the process of restoring nature's balance, and no mouse has been
truly harmed in the process of this story unfolding.
Mouse 911 looks down at this little
life in his hand. She's small but a bit
chubby and plump. He laughs when he sees
her in spite of himself. He can feel her
warmth, her essence, through the glove.
She's no doubt in shock, scared, but not witless. She feels.
She breathes. She submits. She waits.
This is self-preservation. She's
merely working out the timing and factoring in the guile and agility
required. She by no means has given
up. One way or another she hopes to
survive. She'll soon know.
Now with the end-game at hand, Mouse 911 begins to experience a threat
level approaching mild human panic, but it's more of an upbeat variety of the
kind that develops when positive steps are being taken that could very well end
in success, as in "This just might be crazy enough to work"! Security!
Security! Code Green! As in
Go!
Following Plan B, Part 2, Ms. Mouse
911 runs to the back door, but Mouse 911 heads to the front door, now sans cat,
wondering if Mouse can swivel her head around for biting purposes. Ms. Mouse 911 notes Mr. Mouse 911's standard deviation from the plan and adapts quickly, running ahead to the front door and
opens it. Robin and Lily then notice Mouse 911 leaning out the open front
door and wonder what the fuss is about before resuming their search for Mouse.
Happy Christmas, little Mouse, and
to you a good flight. Dash away, dash away, and to you a good night. May your scurrying be quick, your instincts
clear, and your pursuers all thwarted.
You're a sweet little dear.
And Robin and Lily and The Mouse 911's, after their
interesting night of unpredictable fun, would settle in for a long winter's
nap, with no kerchief or cap though with a cat in a lap, as their adrenaline
recedes after their Christmas Eve flap.
This was a tiny Christmas Eve miracle that was coaxed
away from becoming a debacle. With the
New Year approaching, it's good to have a reminder that as history unfurls,
Mouse-sized and larger, unpredictable though it can be, it can be kind,
inventive, and with a good outcome for all, and that the future is not
something set in stone but can be modified by the power to think, say, and do,
and most of all care. If we dare. And this means me and you.
Now tis the night after Christmas,
and all over the house, not a creature is stirring, not even Mouse.
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