The above is a stock photo. But the little critter shown is not much different looking than the present Zizou, our cat, brought in the house the other night. I was waiting outside Julian's room as he settled in for bed and caught a shadowy glimpse of Zizou as he walked through the living room. Something didn't look quite right. Then I heard him meow -- a very muffled meow. I ran over to him and he was proudly looking up at me with this tiny brown field mouse in his choppers. I grabbed his scruff and demanded that he let go; which he did. Probably not for the best. But the mouse dropped to the floor and did not move a muscle. "Great, dead", I thought. I tossed Zizou out the door and went back to the mouse. Surprise! Gone. I called upstairs for Joy to help me find him and we got some flashlights. It didn't take long to locate him hiding under the couch. We made a few attempts to usher him out towards me but he was too smart for that. Finally Julian's curiosity got the best of him and he came out of his room to see what was all the commotion. I put him back down and decided we'd let the mouse recuperate from his ride in the jaws of Zizou.
After getting Julian to bed I set up a rudimentary mouse trap consisting of an upside down shoe box and a string with a toothpick on one end (for holding up the box) and cheese on the other. I went upstairs for an episode of Entourage and came back down to find my trap sprung! I carefully took the little mouse outside and set him free. Zizou has brought him back for occasional visits since then.
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