Archives: Mouse Hunt 2007

No toes touch the floor!

Homeschooling is a 24/7 experience. Don’t worry if you didn’t cover all the subjects today. Forgot science? That’s OK. You can always study nature close up by going on a  . . . mouse hunt.

Just when I thought it would be a quiet, relaxing evening, the phone rings . . .
It’s Kristel, my dear daughter (DD). “Mom! Is Andrew (DD’s younger brother) there? Can he help Sean move the piano? A mouse ran under it!” (panic-stricken voice)

Andrew and I quickly run across the street to the rescue (armed only with my digital camera. I’m not about to let this Kodak moment go by).

Upon our arrival, the first thing I see is Kristel standing on the couch, baby in arm, pointing to the piano. “It’s under there! I saw it! It hasn’t come out yet.” She has made all the kids find a “high spot.” No toes on the floor.

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Sean, who has just walked in the door from a long day at work, says, “Can I eat dinner first?”
Uh…no.

So Sean and Andrew push the piano aside, while I stand armed with my camera to catch a shot of this loathsome creature. Kristel watches safely from her perch. I think she is throwing away a perfectly good opportunity for an up-close “nature” moment, but she couldn’t care less right now.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

DGS (Nathan) is finally allowed to hold the broom–just in case the mouse sneaks out the front of the piano.

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Armed with those new-fangled sticky traps, Sean and Andrew are ready to pounce as well.

Success! Well, sort of. I’m afraid the furry ball of trouble is too fast for my camera. It skitters across the carpet, over my foot, and slips and skids and flips into the kitchen and . . . under the oven.

“Hmmm . . . we’re going to have to think on this awhile.” While Sean and Andrew are thinking, the mouse is moving . . . up, up, up between the oven and the cabinet. Kristel sits on the bar stool and waits. The mouse must be caught tonight. I shiver to think what kind of night my poor DD will pass if Mickey Mouse is allowed to wander free in her house one more day.

Finally, I abandon my camera and help Andrew pull the oven out, while Sean waits topside with a bucket, in case the mouse decides to flee up instead of out. 

He goes up. Sean goes after him. Mickey Mouse goes down. Andrew jams a small broom under the oven. Mouse goes up. Sean goes after him. Mouse goes down . . . again. (This is good for a lesson on using group dynamics to solve a problem.) Now, thoroughly confused, Mickey Mouse darts for freedom.

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WHACK! Andrew to the rescue . . . almost. He slaps the rectangular sticky trap at the mouse, catching  it by the tail. “I need another trap!” he yells. (This boy has leadership ability!)
Sean tosses him a trap.
 
WHACK! Andrew to the rescue again. He’s got the little fellow between 2 sticky traps.Ick.

I still think Mickey Mouse is good for a few minutes of observation. Look at those eyes! (He’s still alive at this point.) Maybe we can do a quick lesson on mouse measuring?
 
Sigh. Kristel’s homeschool curriculum does not include mice of any kind . .  .  dead or alive.