This Time It Didn’t Run Up The Clock.
Sunday Morning:
The day began like any other Sunday. I got up early before Jan and the girls woke up. They usually slept in on Sundays, allowing me to watch my morning news programs. Afterward, I would cook breakfast for everyone. This was the only time I had complete control of the TV remote; when they were all asleep. The truth is, I’ve always enjoyed this time to myself.
The others usually got up around 10, allowing me enough time to make breakfast, but only after my show had ended. That day I had time to do a few little chores before they woke up, simple things like wiping down the kitchen countertops and taking out the trash. Jan always appreciated the little things I did to help out around the house.
That morning I noticed the small kitchen trash can was full, so I decided to empty it into the garbage bag we kept in the garage. Normally I took the small canister out to the garage and emptied it into the larger garbage bag, but that day, for some unknown reason, I grabbed the garbage bag from the garage and brought it into the kitchen to empty the canister.
Unbeknownst to me, there was a small hole at the bottom of the large garbage bag I had brought from the garage. When I emptied the contents of the small trash canister into the garbage bag I thought I felt something move atop the hairs on my left leg, just under my pant leg. Looking down I noticed a slight hump in my blue jeans, right above my knee. That was odd.
The Mouse
As I reached down and gently pushed on the small hump, it gave a little, then something began to move up my leg, heading toward the crotch area. As you might imagine, this action provoked a sense of fear that caused me to quickly tear my pants off as I started to run down the hallway screaming like a little girl. It was not my proudest moment.
This whole scene caused quite a commotion. I’m running down the hall screaming, a mouse is running along with me, as the cat casually heads in the opposite direction toward the kitchen and his food bowl, completely oblivious to his surroundings. Naturally, the disturbance woke the whole family, causing them to rush into the hall to see what was happening.
So there I was, standing in the hallway in my underwear, holding my jeans, while everyone laughed at the ridiculous sight in front of them. Finally, Jan stopped laughing long enough to ask me “What the hell happened, what are you doing”. I sheepishly responded, “I think a mouse just ran up my leg”. For some reason, everyone found that humorous. I certainly did not.
As things calmed down I put my pants on and walked back into the kitchen to finish what I was doing before the incident began. It was then that I noticed the hole in the garbage bag. The mouse must have chewed through the bag while it was sitting on the garage floor, it had been inside the bag when I brought it into the kitchen.
The garbage bag had been leaning against my leg as I emptied the canister, that’s probably why I hadn’t noticed the hole earlier. The mouse naturally panicked from the disturbance and ran out of the bag and up the small opening at the bottom of my pants above my shoe, probably thinking it was a good place to hide.
I put the damaged garbage bag inside another garbage bag and returned it to the garage, as the others searched the house for signs of the frightened mouse. Of course, they never found anything. A little later, as I started to calm down, I made breakfast for everyone. Afterward, we all continued our day as if nothing had ever happened.
Sunday Evening
It wasn’t until later that evening, as we were watching a movie, that the subject came up again. Here comes our cat, sashaying into the living room from the kitchen with a dead mouse in his mouth. Tiger (his name) walked toward me, dropping the dead mouse at my feet, proudly looking up at me with confidence that he was doing the right thing and should be rewarded.
I immediately took the dead mouse out to the trash, the bags were now sitting out in front of the house, at the curb awaiting tomorrow’s pickup. When I walked back into the house Tiger was still rubbing up against everyone’s legs, anticipating what he thought would be some extravagant reward.
You better believe Tiger would receive a reward, he earned it.
I took a small piece of steak from the frig, left over from our meal, chopped it into smaller pieces, then filled the cat’s dinner bowl with the treat. Tiger attacked the meat as vigorously as he probably attacked that mouse. Finally, we could all go to bed without worrying about a pesky mouse running loose in the house.
As the clock struck midnight we had one satisfied cat purring in the corner and four relieved people sleeping in their beds.
What a day!
On Reflection:
Looking back, the mistake I made was bringing the garbage bag into the house instead of taking the trash canister out to the garage like I usually did. We now isolate the garbage bags in large bins with lids.
As I said earlier… It wasn’t my proudest moment.
I’m positive I will never make that mistake again.
Thanks for reading my article.
Info Sources: My personal experience
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