A Game of Cat and Mouse

On New Year's Day Justin informed me that I may not want to go out the back door. It seems that there was "part" of an animal on our back porch and he wanted to clean it up before I went outside and it freaked me out. We decided that it looked to be part of a mouse, but we were only so confident in that assumption as there wasn't much left. Now the question was - what happened to the rest of it? It looked like it had been dropped off for us right next to our back door. Let me tell you - not the type of home delivery I would prefer.

Yesterday - our questions were answered. I heard something moving on our back porch and looked out to see a cat, right next to the porch on the grass. As I looked closer I could see that this cat was nice enough to be swatting at a little mouse huddled up in the grass. The last thing I wanted was to have to deal with another "part" of a mouse being left on our back porch. I tried to chase the cat off, but he wouldn't go anywhere and then he camped out next to our back door - ready to run in as soon as I opened the door. I grabbed a big plastic cup, filled it with water and headed out the front door.

By the time I got to the backyard the cat was long gone (I didn't realize that I can evoke such fear in cats). but the mouse was huddled up next to the house, scared to death. I poured the water on the mouse and he hardly moved. I didn't want to leave him there because I knew that the cat would soon be back. I was on the phone with Justin and kept telling him that he should come back home (from Louisiana, that is) and take care of it. This is definitely Justin territory.

I ended up picking the mouse up in the cup (the cup which is now in the trash, BTW) and taking him out the back corner of the yard where I let him go. Sure enough, 30 minutes later I hear the sound of the bell on the cat's collar. He was looking all around the back porch for the mouse.

A couple hours later I went out the front door and started walking down the street to get our mail. What do I hear behind me? Sure enough, there is the cat, following me to the mailbox. As I am checking the mail, he is rubbing up against my legs trying to get me to pet him. I can tolerate cats and sometimes even like them, but I am by no means a cat person. Looks like we need to be shopping for cat and mouse deterrent for the outside of our house.