Wanted

Last spring in the rush to get settled into our new house and get organized before company came I left one of my school bags sitting in the garage right outside our door. All summer as I opened the door to go into the garage I passed by the bag always thinking, "hmmm, I really need to bring that inside." But, I just never did. The bag was full of books, my day planner and one item I had forgotten all about...a Trader Joe's chocolate bar given to me as a gift by one of my students.


About a month ago I realized I needed one of those books in my bag so I gamely went out to the garage to recover it. As I peered into the black bottom of the bag I saw the shiny wrapper of the chocolate bar. Yay! Then I noticed the wrapper was in tiny bits and half the bar had been nibbled away. I quickly pulled my hand out of the bag knowing there must be a chocolate-loving creature lurking inside. As I was the only one home I did what I believe most people in my situation would do: I decided I didn't need that book after all, turned on my heel and calmly walked back into the house. I then willed myself to forget what I had seen and continued walking by the bag for the next month.

A few days ago I realized I did indeed need that book so I took a second peek in the bag. This time there was nothing left of the chocolate bar but a pile of shiny gold wrappers. Jason was home so I apprised him of the situation (there was some eye rolling on his part) and sent him to the garage to rid the bag of the scary creature that was surely inside. I retreated to the family room where I soon heard banging, running and maybe a tiny shriek. The culprit was still in the bag and this is what he must have looked like while enjoying my chocolate bar:

Somehow in my mind the only thing that could have been in that bag was some type of disgusting, creepy-crawly bug - or a rat. A mouse is entirely different! As you know, we've been trained from a young age to love these tiny rodents. I've been inundated with cute mouse images forever!

Like this one!

And have you seen this? Pretty cute!
Mice are heroes as evidenced by children's literature:

And clearly they have a sensitive side.

So, when I went out to take a look at the little mouse quivering in the corner of the garage behind a bookshelf I was horrified to hear Jason say he needed to get one of these:

"Not on my watch Jason!"

After more eye rolling on Jason's part (he thinks I'm crazy) he spent the better part of the next hour trying to get the mouse to run for his life out of the garage, which he did.

But darn that mouse - yesterday he came back looking for seconds. Now he's wanted: dead or alive.