magickmermaid

Eek! A Mouse! Part Deux

A Mouse in the House

Some of my dear readers may remember my first encounter with a mouse in the house. (The Gnome and I-Episode 10)

Last Thursday night when I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth I had a visitor.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a rather large mouse scurrying on top of the radiator.  After emitting a loud involuntary scream (which was undoubtedly heard all over the neighbourhood), I leaped on top of the toilet.  No, not because I was afraid.  I wanted a birds-eye view of the bathroom in case the mouse had jumped into the bathtub.  (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

Henri raced into the bathroom.  I caught a barely perceptible eye-roll and a suppressed smile as he observed me atop the toilet.
Mouse in the bathroom

“Que s’est-il passé?”  (“What happened?”)

“A mouse!” I exclaimed.

A very noticeable eye-roll from Henri.  Then a shrug as he exited the bathroom muttering, “Beaucoup de bruit pour rien.”  (“Much ado about nothing.”)  I checked around the house for evidence (mouse droppings) and didn’t find anything.

I forgot about the incident until I was in the kitchen making breakfast on Saturday morning.  It appeared that several of the grape tomatoes were missing from the basket.  Odd, I thought.  I had just purchased the basket of tomatoes on Friday; surely I hadn’t eaten that many yesterday.   In a hurry to do the house-cleaning I forgot about the missing tomatoes until Sunday morning.  Now the basket was almost empty!  For moment I thought I was going mad.  Had I even purchased tomatoes?  I quickly looked at the supermarket bill and saw I had, indeed, bought a basket of grape tomatoes.  Again, I searched the house for evidence of a mouse and found nothing.  I counted eight tomatoes in the basket and did not eat any.  I said nothing to Henri….

Until Monday morning when I discovered the empty basket overturned on the counter!  I checked all over the kitchen and found nothing to indicate the mouse had returned. I even looked in the rubbish bin to see if the mouse had been in there.  No, this stealthy mouse had class.  Only the best organic grape tomatoes for him!

“Que’est-ce que tu fais?”, (“What are you doing?”) Henri asked as he observed me looking under the sink, behind the stove and in the cupboards.

“The mouse has returned!”, I answered; pointing to the empty basket.

A look of alarm flashed on Henri’s face.  “Mes truffes!” (“My truffles!”), he exclaimed and dashed to the cupboard.   Thankfully, the mouse hadn’t discovered the truffles.
Mes Truffes
“Wait, what? Truffles?!!”, I cried; the thieving mouse momentarily forgotten.  “You have truffles and you haven’t been sharing?!  We will talk about this later!”

Cut to scene of a mouse clutching a bag of truffles being chased by Henri who is being chased by me as the theme song from Benny Hill plays in the background.

See The Gnome and I for more stories about Henri.  🙂

31 comments

  2. I knew a flat mate who couldn’t stand the mice in the kitchen (it was a rather old victorian building). She also did not dare to think about exterminating them, so in the end she set capture traps, and took the little creatures off into the wild and let them go. I always wonder if they ever found their way home, or else survived in their new country residence.

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  3. “… going clip-clippity-clop on the stairs”

    Well I for one would like to shake this mouse’s hand and buy him a beer.
    Because he’s got you writing posts again.
    Typical Henri move with the truffles. I wonder what else he’s not sharing.

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  10. We had a large community of mice in the chicken house until a couple of black snakes moved in. Unfortunately, the snakes also enjoyed dining on eggs. Both snakes are now dead and I wonder how long it will be until mice start reappearing.

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  14. Thank you so much for the French correction! (Not to be confused with the French Connection.) No wonder Henri is always scowling when I attempt any French words! I blame it on Google translations. 😀

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  17. My butler screamed one day: “Vole! Vole in the kitchen!” and there was indeed a vole in the kitchen. Then there was the time I was jumped on by an unmentionable-but-larger-than-a-mouse creature at around 5 o’clock in the morning, also in the kitchen. And, there were the pair of arguing winged beasts that descended the chimney one Boxing Day morn’. Alas, it is fun living in a cottage.

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  22. […] Facing Wild Animals: I have dealt with rude, unfriendly neighbours and barking dogs.  My most praise-worthy achievement has been sending spiders and other bugly intruders on one-way ocean voyages with great alacrity all by myself.  Ultimately triumphant in the Great Mouse Invasion of 2018. […]

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