When is a field mouse cute?

This field mouse is cute:


This one is really cute too:

Poor little guy! Brrrr!


This one is decidedly less cute:

Folks! Don't worry, that is not a picture from my home. I don't have the time to make homemade potpies! Am I going too fast for you? Stay with the group!

Besides we have cats! Indeed, whenever we haven't seen them in a good while, they usually turn up in the dining room with a squeaky plaything, a real live squeaky plaything! Sure! It's fun! Then A has to catch the mouse, usually in a piece of, now disposable, Tupperware, and let the poor mouse go across the street.

Ok, let me back this up a bit. My husband's philosophy regarding mice is simple:

If there are no holes in your house, you will not have a mouse problem.

And to his credit, our other two houses have no such holes, or if they did, this fixed the problem:


That's it! Stuff steel wool into the hole and then spray in the hole with expanding polyurethane foam. Easy!

But the problem gets harder when the hole is hard to get to. This is why the new house has a mouse problem. Turns out the hole/mouse port in question is under the front stairs and porch outside. A real tight squeeeeeeze.

First, J thought A would fit through, after all he is smaller, at least this month. But no, too tight for A. The next thing I know I look out the front door and I see this--

My husband, decked out in a head-to-toe tyvek chemical suit, a rope tied to him, his trusty can of foam, and A. I am not sure why A was there except maybe to take the last will and testament? Call 911? Pass him crackers and water when he gets stuck under the porch? I wish I had the presence of mind to take a picture. The last time when J was up a 40 foot ladder with a chain saw to cut off a branch, 4 YO A had the phone (to dial 911) and I had the camera. Then there was the 25 foot high fan install with the 12 foot ladder....but, I digress. We forgot this time, I think the novelty is wearing off or something. (And I have NO idea what the rope was for.)

I can say this, we haven't had a mouse plaything in 36 hours.

And J made it out in time to take me to IKEA!!

Lauren