Tales of a Mighty Mouser--Part Two

So in my original post about Sunny's exterminator position, Tales of a Mighty Mouser, I mentioned that there was another incident which merited its own post.  I decided to stop being a tease and share.

Now, just to warn you, this is not one for the faint of heart.  It is a testament to the great love I bear my sweet furry beast that he was ever allowed back into my room after this particular incident.

Now, when there's a mouse around, there are usually some early warning signs.  Sunny will hear things, or smell things and I will notice him going on the prowl.  He'll investigate corners and check behind doors.  I've learned to recognize the warning signs that something has found it's way in, and is soon to find its way out the hard way.

This time, there were no such warnings.  It was mid-July.  It was the first time that I was going to be the person solely responsible for my company's presence at our biggest national conference.  This was our target group of customers and I was one of two who represented the advance team, arriving early to start the setup, only to be joined by the rest of the crew later.

To say that I was wound up, would be an understatement.  I had been working late to get things together and that meant that all of my personal packing was happening last minute.  Now, Sunny is not a fan of my suitcase.  I've done enough business travel that he knows what it means and is less than thrilled when he sees it out and open.  I had been running around like crazy to get everything done.  I was pretty sure I was finished and was going to crash, praying I could shut my brain off long enough to sleep.

I crawled into bed exhausted and wired.  Within moments, Sunny was there.  I made short shrift of his evening ritual of scritches and treats, trying to get to sleep as quickly as possible.  Once that was done, Sunny did something very unusual.  He started digging at the covers and sniffing.  Now, you have to understand, I am not one for making beds and with the July heat, the covers were bunched up in the middle of the bed where I had shoved them in order to keep cool.

I pushed Sunny away and told him to stop being a nudge, because I needed to sleep.  He came back and did it again.  I pushed him away again.  Again he came back.  I gave up.  I rolled over, presenting him with my back, did my best to ignore him and eventually managed to fall asleep.

Big mistake.

I got up the next day and uncharacteristically jumped out of bed right away to get going.  Since I was going to be away for a few days, I decided to make the bed.

You do know where this is going right?

As I shook out the covers, to my intense horror, I discovered the reason for Sunny's odd behavior of the previous evening.  A tiny furry body fell out from the rumpled comforter and sheets.  I cannot tell you how badly I shuddered with the pure skeeve of having spent the night, blissfully slumbering with a dead mouse in my bed.  It was a very good thing that there was no food in my system.

The bed got stripped and the offending corpse tossed out into the bushes.  I was still twitching when I got to the office to meet my co-worker and collect a few things before my flight.  I called my brother, whose squeamish tendencies can, usually, only be brought out by needles being stuck into him summed it up brilliantly...EEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Yeah.  That about covers it.

Tales of a Mighty Mouser

So, once Sunny claimed his place in my bed and my house, our bond was established.  It was pretty humbling how quickly he trusted me.  There are still holdovers from before our time.  He freezes if he's anywhere near my moving feet, which tells me he used to be kicked.  He also heads for the hills if I pull out the broom or Swiffer, which tells me that he used to get hit with one.  Those are two things that break my heart any time they happen.

Anyway, it was the first Saturday in May that I brought him home to my old house.  My place is about 100 years old and a bit drafty.  I also happen to live in a town that is on the verge of a huge rural area.  Are you getting ideas here?

So, at about 4:30 in the morning on the Monday after Mother's Day I was rather suddenly awakened with SCRABBLE, SCRABBLE, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!!  This was a bit of a surprising wake-up to say the least.  There being only one possible source for the the sound, I asked, "Sunny, what are you doing?"  The response I got was a low growl.  THAT certainly got my attention.

I sat up and turned on the light.  There he sat, next the bed, oh so proudly holding the mouse in his mouth, with the tail hanging out.  I think my brain literally froze for a moment.  Thankfully, it came back online quickly and I realized that he was bringing me a gift and having a mouser in my old house was a very good thing, so I managed not to freak (pretty good for 4:30 am!).  Instead, in the nicest voice possible, I told him what a good boy he was and asked him to put it down so I could get rid of it.  It took a bit of coaxing, but I did get him to put it down so I could grab it by the tail through a wad of toilet paper, take it downstairs and toss it out into the bushes.  I brought him several treats and gave him lots of pets and scritches and again told him what a wonderful boy he was.

When I went to crawl back into bed, I noticed something.  There were several tiny red dots on my white comforter.  That was when I came to the realization that he had actually brought the mouse to me on the bed and the noise I heard was him catching it again when it tried to get away.  (Ewww...not the last time he's done that, but that's a story that deserves it's own entry.)  I managed to clean up the mouse blood and Sunny returned to the bed, oh so proud of what he had done.

As Mother's Day presents go, it was definitely unique.

As I sit here typing, he is stretched out on the floor on his back, daintily pulling his front claws through his teeth to clean them.  He needs to make sure they are prepared to protect me from any rodent invaders.  I think he'd be willing to take on an ROUS for me.

That's my boy.