Look What the Cat Dragged In!

I know, it's hard to see, but there between the dresser and the wall is a mouse.  Now some of you may remember a couple years ago, Stitch brought a tiny, baby mouse into the house that I thought was one of those furry toy mice; by the time I realized it was a real, live mouse, it had vanished.  For a couple months afterward, we had the occasional encounter but never managed to catch it until I got lucky one day--if you can call it that.  It was actually a horrible experience, but no more mouse in the house.

Lately Stitch has been hunting again.  For several days in a row, he brought a lizard into the house, and Hubby caught it and escorted it back out again--Hubby thinks it was the same lizard each time but I'm skeptical.  Tonight, though, I came back into the kitchen after being gone for just a minute or two and found both cats looking under the dresser--not a good sign, believe me.  Hubby and I were hoping for a moth, but no . . . .  Hubby got out his flashlight and I saw the brown body of a mouse lodged half way up the back of the dresser.

After some thought, I decided to rig up a box with a long PVC pipe leading out the back door, thinking I may be able to poke something behind the dresser to drop the mouse into the box and out the PVC pipe.  A good idea, but in practice what happen was that the mouse jumped away from the box and fled toward the living room, followed by two cats, me, and Hubby.  We scrambled around, we looked under things, we moved a couch, and we waived a soccer field flag on a bendable pole around--the flag was what I used as a mouse poker thing; it eventually was employed to help herd the little guy into a corner where he jumped into a shoe box that I quickly covered with a lid.  Yes, I took him outside and set him free, and while he made a dash for the neighbors' yard, the cats were still busy looking under the couch.

And here the brave hunter poses with the Recess Schnibbles pattern in the background, resting up for the next mouse safari.  But you're probably wondering:  Who's the winner of the pattern?  It's Winona!  It seems doubly appropriate that Winona's blog is called Cat Lover and Quilt Maker, because in addition to the Schnibbles pattern, she has also won a black and white tuxedo mouser complete with mouse accessory pack.  Well, maybe not; I do like him most of the time.  I'll give it some thought.

On Memorial Day, Winona ". . . piddled on the computer. Hubby is napping and all our furbabies are asleep. Later I hope to get some sewing in or maybe work on some hexies. Can't be outside today. We have been having storms. Had lots a rain, some wind and a little hail. A good day to chill inside. I love this pattern. Have a good Memorial Day."

Many of you mentioned you had rain and storms.  Here in California, rain on Memorial Day is very unusual, but this year much of the northern part of the state had rain too--we drove through the rain almost all the way home from Eureka.  Speaking of which . . . I still want to tell you about the launch of the kinetic sculptures into Humboldt Bay on the second day of the race--tomorrow, I think.

Winona, email me your mailing address and I'll get the pattern in the mail to you.  Thank you all for entering the drawing.