To those of you who suggested that Asa make friends with critters bigger than bugs, he listened. After months of not being able to do laundry, Mom headed down to the basement and was greeted by a mouse. Now clearly this mouse was just as surprised to see Mom, as she was to see her, because Asa’s newest houseguest froze. Thus giving Mom time to dump the contents of a nearby wastebasket and put it over Asa’s new friend. Mom then rushed upstairs and interrupted Dad’s Zoom meeting to request help in ushering our little visitor outside. Ms. Mouse, please note that you are very lucky that you picked our house based on some of the recommendations from Dad’s coworkers on dispatching you from our home!
Anyways, Dad slipped a piece of cardboard under the basket, flipped it over, much to the displeasure of the mouse, and carried the basket outside deep into our woods to set her free. Problem solved! That is until Mom returned to the basement to finish the laundry and discovered a second, even smaller, mouse laying on the floor next to the washing machine. Mom felt sad because she didn’t know if the little guy was dead or just napping. It turned out to be the latter, because it let out a tiny shriek of surprise when the wastebasket prison covered him. Again another trip for Mom upstairs to interrupt Dad, more wisecracks about Mighty Mouse and other cartoon mice, followed by Dad taking another walk in the woods. Since this one was much smaller than the first, Dad assumed he was a baby and placed him in the forest near where he left his mother.
After googling that a mouse can have six to eight babies per litter, Mom sat Asa down to have a little chat. Just how many little friends did he invite to live in the basement? Asa couldn’t remember. Although in his defense, I’m not sure he can count that high. Asa tried to explain that with the onset of cool weather, his little friends needed a warm place to stay. After all, she was a new mother! But Asa’s pleas for leniency from the housing authority were ignored. Mom did say though that until these houseguests are evicted, Dad would be in charge of doing laundry, because she would not be returning to the basement!
Surprisingly Dad showed more concern than Mom for the wellbeing of Asa’s little friends. He set up tiny buffet tables in the basement. Ok, I admit I wasn’t a very good host to our guests. It upset me to see he served them my favorite treat of peanut butter. Thus giving me no choice but to side with Mom that these mice must leave! The next morning Dad checked the traps, and for some reason seemed surprised that the peanut butter was missing from most of them. I’m more surprised that there was peanut butter left on some! How rude of the mice not to eat it all! Clearly Dad agreed, because he then put chunks of cheese on their little buffet tables instead of my peanut butter. Sadly one mouse must have got really excited over the cheese, because the next morning Dad found her with the buffet table flipped over on top of her, and only her little head poking out from under it. Mom got really sad, and a funeral service was held at the edge of the woods for Asa’s departed friend.
It’s now been a few days since these events unfolded, and the cheese has been consumed on the other buffet tables. The pile of laundry is getting bigger, Dad is researching how to build a better mousetrap, and I’m keeping a close eye on Asa in case he decides to invite any bigger houseguests to stay! I never should have complained about Asa’s bug friends!
