The Unexpected Guest that Made Leilani's Day

The other day I was going about my morning business, picking up toys and folding laundry when I was stopped mid track by a tail sticking out from underneath our couch.  Keep in mind we live in a rural area and are surrounded by fields so it is not uncommon to have little wanderers find their way to our dwelling.  In fact, here is a picture of two deer out in the field behind our house a few days earlier.  Pretty cool!

A tail sticking out from under your couch, however, is NOT cool!

Targhee has already had an occurrence with such an animal.  He was vacuuming underneath the couches and actually stepped on a dead mouse.  He was quite scarred by the incident. He takes extra care now when he's in charge of vacuuming to observe every inch of flooring before taking a step.  Well, it just so happens that we had cleaned the house top to bottom (a proud and rare moment for me) a day or two earlier, so I know it wasn't there then, because Targhee had vacuumed:)

It wasn't moving but it didn't look dead either.  I tested it by jiggling a few pieces of furniture nearby to see if it would scurry away just like a good mouse should but it just sort of shifted where it was.

I stayed there for several minutes saying to myself "What should I do? What should I do?"  I didn't want to touch it but I couldn't just leave it either!  Finally I mustered up all the courage I could, wadded up at least a half role of toilet paper in my hand and grabbed a jar.  I reached down and grabbed it by the tail, screaming while it wriggled in my hands and stuffed it in the jar.

...

Now what?

I seriously didn't know what to do.  I'm not a killer.  I don't even like smooshing spiders.  I usually just cover them up with some sort of containing device and leave it for someone much braver to deal with.  But it was just me and I had to be the brave one.

So I did what I usually do in crisis situations... I called my sister:)

She confirmed to me that I indeed did not have to kill it but that I could just throw it back out in the field and then it would probably die on it's own.

Great plan!

Just then Leilani came down (probably wondering why I had been gone so long).  I asked her if she wanted to see a mouse and she very enthusiastically said she would.

Meet Gus Gus

Leilani was beside herself with Disney Princess happiness.  I mean a REAL LIVE mouse had come to her house to be her friend.  She kept saying things like "Awe!  He's soo cute!" She pranced around with him for the next several minutes having all sorts of intriguing conversations. Do you see the look of pure joy on her face?

It was hilarious.  

TJ was not so amused:)

She asked me if he was sad since he wasn't moving.  I knew if I didn't jump on that one immediately we might very well be keeping this thing as a pet. So I told her yes, he was very sad because he missed his mommy and his best friend Jac Jac and that we needed to take him back to his home with his family and friends.  She understood and walked with me to the back field where she said her goodbyes and plopped him over the fence. 

So there you have it.  The rodent who increased my bravery and made my little girl's day.  Please now leave this world in peace Gus Gus.