Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The new norm

Isn't it funny how after a while a person adjusts to just about anything?

Just four days ago, I was in tears because it seemed as if the mice had already won. I sat at the kitchen table in the middle of the day while a mouse the size of a toddler crouched behind our stove and rattled the back cover. He did that all day long while a smaller mouse, one the size you are used to seeing, hopped up on the counter beside the stove, and walked around on his hind legs, paws on hips, sticking his tongue out at me. It happened exactly like that.

That was Thursday. By last night, when mice 7 and 8 had seen no reason not to reach for a stale piece of chocolate that for some odd reason smelled of death, I was almost entirely immune to the death chamber that has become the space between our stove and fridge.

Booie ferociously grabs at the mice when we pull them out. I have no idea why she wants to chomp down on a dead mouse, but I guess that's her way of showing how she would handle one. Yeah, okay, Booie, but still, it's snap trap: 8. Booie: 0. Whoever said that cats are good for a) keeping mice from setting up shop in your home because of their feline smell alone and b) that all cats are good at catching mice was a) a liar and b) probably had never owned a cat. Some cats are simply better suited to lying in sunny windows.

So, killing cute little animals has become the norm around here. I'm not saying I like it by any means, but it did become easier and quite fast, too. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had to adjust to that new norm whether I wanted to or not. Sometimes I think it would be easier if more things in life were foisted upon us like that, whether we think we want them or not. Or maybe I just need to get better at doing more self-imposed foisting.

6 comments:

Tracy27 said...

It is interesting, the surprising ways in which we can adapt to gross things in everyday life if we need to (my dog's drool situation being one of them). Bill and I used to keep a running tally of killed mice on a whiteboard in our kitchen in San Diego, except we called them "customers". Two more served! I think we got up to like 23 before the mouse resort folded.

Unknown said...

Ha! Our whiteboard just says DEAD MICES.

Ruud Hein said...

The only time any cat of ours has caught something is when they escape the house and bring back the occasional dead bird. Besides that I recognize Garfield more in domestic cats than The Hunter :)

Kris said...

Man, I would rent out my cat if we were closer. The catch is you have to intercept her between catching the mouse and bringing it into the bedroom to play with it under the bed at 3 am.

Donna said...

We had no idea we even had mice until we got cats. Last winter I think they caught about 5. Maybe you need a kitten?

Unknown said...

I definitely want a kitten! But I don't want any mouse torture going on underneath our bed, especially at 3am.