Mouse Friend

Our critter catcher has been the home to many a creature--Stripey the snake, three hundred or so earthworms, an assortment of bugs, and now a mammal--a tiny mouse.  Thursday morning as I was getting in the shower I saw a tiny thing move in the corner of my eye.  I saw it move again and I realized it was a mouse.  Despite a lack of clothing, I gave chase and ultimately cornered it on the stairs.  In a loud but whispering voice, I asked Bianca to grab my work gloves.  After a few calls she heard me and came sprinting.  I got the little guy in a corner and then lunged, picking him up in two cupped hands.  

Then I had a thought--now what?  I could kill him, but it seemed pretty brutal.  I could throw him outside, but he would probably just come right back in.  Then I had an idea--the boys would love to see the mouse, but both of them were asleep.  Bianca grabbed the critter catcher and brought it to me.  The mouse fell in and waited. After my shower Ethan woke up and, as we expected, he was super excited.  He got down on his little haunches and said things like--"its okay" and "hi mouse."  

When Isaac woke up some ten minutes later, Ethan was so excited to show him the mouse.  He climbed up on Isaac's bed and told him: "Tome on I-man...I show you."  Isaac, like a good big brother, sleepily agreed.  Ethan escorted him into the room like a mayor showing of a new economic development project. And when Isaac didn't immediately respond Ethan told him: "Its a mouse brudder."  Both boys were, of course fascinated.  

Two days later he has eaten the cheese we gave him and drank the water we put it.  Something tells me the reintroduction into the wild might have a few tears.  Ethan was too little to get Stripey being released but he totally gets Mickey's presence.