Cat and Mouse

I wouldn’t say that I’m necessarily a “cat person,” because I like dogs too, but the only pets I’ve ever had have been cats. We got my first kitten, Sunshine, when I was in second or third grade. My mom used to put an armband around her ears and call her “samurai kitty.”

Sadly, Sunshine passed away when I was in seventh grade; she was only four years old. I was really heartbroken, so my parents promised that we could get another cat. A few weeks before Christmas, we adopted two kittens from the SPCA, a brother and sister from the same litter (supposedly, it’s hard to know for sure at the pound, especially because they look nothing alike). I don’t think my dad was thrilled about getting two cats, but my mom said that if we got both of them, they could look after each other and play with each other while we were gone. We took them home and named them Cassey and Cobey. They were pretty young when this picture was taken, but I think it's just adorable.

My dad has forever talked about how lazy and generally useless they are, even though I know that he really does like them and would be sad without them. But I guess all of those years of taunting must have finally gotten to them.

I came home one night last week to be told that I missed all of the excitement — Cobey caught a mouse! A real one, in our house! Both of the cats had been running around the house like crazy and when Cobey darted down the basement steps, my dad went down there to check out what he was doing. In the back of the basement, he found Cobey, who looked up at him with a live mouse in his mouth. My dad grabbed a broom, told Cobey to drop it, and tried to whack it when it hit the floor. It took them a while, with Cobey having to catch the mouse and bring it back after it got away, but eventually the little mouse was disposed of and Cobey was praised like a hero.

I was shocked and appalled, mostly at the thought of a mouse inside our house, ewww, but also that Cobey could move fast enough to catch a mouse. He isn’t really overweight, but he just doesn’t move around quickly most of the time. My dad was really impressed with him, saying that Cobey “moved up on his list,” and that Cassey ought to be a little more helpful, since while they were trying to catch it, she was nowhere to be found.

Well, she must have heard him and taken him seriously.

I awoke yesterday morning to a noise near the foot of my bed, and I sat up to see Cassey sitting on the floor with a MOUSE, which was motionless and apparently dead, at her feet. I literally jumped out of bed, trying not to scream, and was halfway to my parents’ room when I stopped. Was it definitely a real mouse? We have those fake ones that we throw around for them to chase, was it actually one of those? My room was dark and I was half asleep when I saw it, and with the recent mouse incident, maybe my sleepy brain had turned an innocent, fake mouse into a real one.

I didn’t want to look at it again, but I walked back into my room, turned on the lamp, and looked over to where Cassey sat.

It had little mousey legs, which are lacking on all of our fake mice. It was definitely real. EWWWW.

Since it’s now clear that the first mouse was not just a random intruder, my parents are going to have an exterminator come out sometime this week. Meanwhile, both Cassey and Cobey are holding their heads a little higher, as the score currently stands:

Cobey: 1
Cassey: 1
Mice: 0