We
had a little bit of excitement around here the other night. I didn’t think anything would be strong
enough to rip us away from the intense grip of an enthralling Hallmark movie,
but now I know. There is one thing.
Chris
was in one of the recliners. I was on
the couch with my knee propped up, trying to get the swelling to go down
some. That’s when I saw it. At first I thought it was but a shadow, a
mere flickering on the outskirts of my vision.
But it was clear enough that I wanted to check it out. Without mentioning anything to Chris, I stood
from the couch and turned on the flashlight on my phone. That got Chris’ attention. “What are you doing?” she asked. “Just checking something,” was my reply. I hoped that would be enough to keep her in
the dark until I could check out whatever it was that caught my eye. Nope.
As soon as I said that she was out of the chair and running to the
kitchen. Terrified at the very prospect
that there might be a …
Meanwhile,
I managed to get my creaky bones and swollen knee in a weird enough position to
shed some light under the TV cabinet.
Nothing. No movement. I heaved myself back to a standing position
and moved on in closer. I asked Chris if
she wanted to help me. Nope. Didn’t even pause to consider my humble
request. Slowly I crept, closer and
closer to the cabinet. Finally I pressed
one palm on the cabinet as I stretched to shine the light back behind. And … there it was. A tiny little field mouse popped out and
raced into the corner. “Yep, there he is,”
was all I said at that point. That was
enough for Chris to check out completely, though. “Go get it.
Go find some mouse traps and get that thing out of here. Hurry up.
Where are they? In the
garage? Go get them.” Chuckling now, I asked, “I think they might
be in the garage. Will you go get them?” Her reply?
“Um. No. I’m staying right here until you catch
him. In fact you have to sleep in here
tonight until you get him.” Well, my chuckle
was in full-on laughter mode now. I hobbled
my way to the garage and found some mouse traps. By the time I got to the kitchen she already
had the peanut butter and a spoon ready for me to bait them up. Oh, and in record time she had cleared the table
of the candy she made. Can’t be
sacrificing candy to a dreaded invasion force.
I
went about setting the traps in appropriate places. That’s when Chris suddenly became convinced
that she had just seen a huge rat, the size of Fritz, in the laundry room. “It was massive,” she insisted. “Put some traps in there, too.” I got all the traps that we had set out, and
then asked if we could continue the movie.
She replied, “Sure. Go
ahead. I’ll just watch from in here
where I can read my book.” Well, OK
then.
We
nailed the mouse sometime in the night in one of the laundry room traps. It must have been my mouse, though. Chris’ rat would have laughed in defiance and
ripped the trap into shreds. As it
turned out, I’m pretty sure the mouse we caught was a singular interloper
acting on his own recognizance.
The
encounter resulted in our trip to Pets Mart yesterday. We were overdue to replace the flap to the
dog door, and that was no doubt the mouse’s point of entry. That flap just begins to get warped over
time, and the magnets no longer work.
The new problem now is, I’m not 100% sure I can get myself down into the
position required to change the silly thing.
Chris is insisting that she can do it herself. Maybe between us we can get it done. Otherwise it will mean a call to our trusty,
always helpful local fire fighter … Nathan.
Psalms
119:57-58 says, “You are my portion, O
Lord; I have promised to obey your words. I have sought your face with all my heart; be
gracious to me according to your promise.”
Father,
thank you for drawing that little critter out of hiding so Chris can sleep at
night. Amen.
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