fearsome hunter

yes, we still have mice. but we are winning the war and the population or at least the evidence of such seems to be greatly decreased. we got a new kind of trap, hooray technology. something about building a better mousetrap.

we haven't had any mouse sightings lately until last night. Then a particularly cheeky mouse scuttled across the TV stand then hopped down and went into Corbin's kennel. Seth, I guess as much just to see what would happen, told Corbin to go into his kennel. Corbin was more than happy to oblige because the only time he is told to go into his cage is to be fed, so he was thinking "SCORE! Bonus, they forgot they already fed me today!" Note: he often actively attempts to fool us into feeding him by going into his kennel and staring out plaintively. It's worked more than a couple of times, whoever he is playing thinks, "oh ______ must have forgotten to feed him this morning".

So Corbin galumphs/tears into his kennel is his usual about to get food frenzy. There is a brief scuffling sound and then Seth goes to investigate. And yes, I've crawled up the couch, wild knuckled and trying not to puke. The dog apparently has about my disposition towards the mice, because upon Seth's investigation, he had scrunched himself as small as possible into the opposite corner from the lifeless mouse. Keep in mind he is also trying to look down at it to make sure it doesn't eat him. Now for those of you who have been to my house, you can picture this, for those who haven't, Corbin is not exactly a small dog and his kennel is only slightly larger than he is, tall enough for him to stand up, long enough for him to lay down diagonally. So he had contorted himself in such a manner as to give this dead mouse the majority of the floor space. Seth is laughing so hard he can hardly breathe and trying to get me to see the spectacle. I'm tempted, but feeling safer on my perch and feeling sorry for the dog. So we start calling him in our most cajoling tones, telling him to go find his bone (always a sure way to have him running in all directions excited), asking if he has to go outside, in short all of his triggers that usually have him bounding about. Nothing doing, the dog will not come out and will not move. Seth finally has to drag him out of his kennel by the collar.

Then there was then a prolonged discussion about whether or not mice play dead or become stunned or would have cause to spring back into action as soon as Seth attempted removal. There were also several schemes for mouse removal involving bowls and sliding paper. There would have probably been a sketch of a proposal had I not been glued to my perch and fighting nausea. In the end, the entire kennel was taken outside and it's contents, stunned or not, were tipped over the side of the deck, hopefully the evening meal of a grateful cat or owl. The dog is bounding about in a grandiose manner, excited by all the goings on and moving about and door opening etc. But in the end, to sum up:

My dog, the fearsome hunter, accidentally killed a mouse, most likely by stepping on it in his excitement at the prospect of being fed, and then was too scared to get out of his own kennel with it blocking the door.