Monday, September 04, 2006

You know it's time to clean the bedroom when the cats discover a mouse living behind the TV.

My son does make an effort to keep his room picked up, but actual move-it scrub-it rearrange-it type cleaning is left up to me. He gets distracted by every gum wrapper and old toy that is mercilessly dragged out from under his dresser or bookcase or bed, then takes exception to nearly every item in the 'toss it' pile.

But I am ruthless. I've moved more times in my life than I can remember and I am a great believer in throwing out the old, broken, useless and sticky and starting over. Preferably with less.

But back to the mouse.

I should have known when I saw the cat in that corner. But I didn't see anything, and told myself he was just after a toy. Then the other cat joined in the corner-worshipping and suddenly Son is hollering from his bedroom (at the precise moment I sat in the recliner and got comfortable, naturally) "MOM!!! I CAN SEE IT!!!"

So much for a quiet Saturday. The room cleaning commenced, punctuated by the screaming dance when Mr. Mouse would make an appearance. I don't know what it is about mice. It's not that they scare me, really, but they're so damned quick and they change directions mid-stride and always, inevitably head for your pantleg.

We tried to stop him. We blocked off the doors with towels and I even nailed a piece of molding in front of the cold air vent where there was a small hole he could have squeezed into. No luck. The cats had long since lost interest and couldn't be bothered to help us, and the dog--bless his confused heart--is truly useless when it comes to pursuing critters.

In the end, we caught him with the business end of the broom and that was the end of Mr. Mouse. Son is pretty quick on the draw and he squashed that little bugger like it was life or death. Well, I suppose for the mouse it was...

Anyway, his room is clean, too. It looks damned good right now. I know it is only a matter of time before the tornado hits and it goes right back to like it was before, but at least we cleaned it up once this year.

1 Comment:

Spy Scribbler said...

He KILLED it??? That poor little mouse? Sheesh!

I'm a screamer when it comes to critters and spiders. I'm always yelling, "Get it out, get it out." And then, "Don't kill it; you don't have to kill it! Don't be mean!"

But he always kills it. I feel a little guilty, but at least it's not scaring me anymore.