Mouse Tales

While visiting my parents we decided to go out to our ranch to fish and spend a little time in the country. When we got there we opened the door to the ranch house and saw what looked like the aftermaths of an all out mouse battle. There was mouse poop EVERYWHERE and the place smelled horrible! Let me interject and say that no one lives there. It is pretty much used 2-3 months out of the year for hunting and then lays dormant the rest of the time; those of you from the country know that a vacant house is a party house for mice and other types of varmint. Anyway, so much for fishing. The new objective was to clean this terribly stinky place. Cal and Bryant went into town to buy cleaning supplies and my Mom, Cameron and I stayed behind to clean with the few supplies that we could find. Everything was going pretty well until... we decided to move one of the beds and clean under it. All of a sudden out runs a mouse!!! ...and oh my gosh did Mom and I freak out! There was jumping and squealing and yelling (all by us of course) while the little guy ran around the room trying to avoid the broom and find a place to hide. It was utter chaos for a good minute when we heard a sweet little voice at the door saying, "What ya doin' ?". I'm sure it was quite confusing seeing Grandma waving a broom like a wild woman trying to kill a 2 inch long mouse, who was quite the athlete I might add, while Mommy was standing on top of the bed (yes, I am a vet but I had no weapon). I decided to take the opportunity to ditch Mom and redirect Cameron back outside to his movie in the back of the car; all the while, banging and squealing still coming from the house. She did well fending for herself but in the end the little stinker ran under the stove and got away (mice 1, women 0). I went back in the house and Mom and I started cracking up at ourselves, when... you guessed it, mouse #2. I think this one was watching the first because he decided to head straight for the stove instead of running around the room first. We, I'm sorry Mom, tried to push him out of the door so as not to have to kill him but the little stinker ran to the stove, climbed the gas line (like he had a hundred times before) and disappeared with his friend (mice 2, women 0). Right after that one disappeared, here came #3. Luckily Mom hadn't left the stove area so she cut off his escape root. He ran straight at her, stopped dead in his tracks and about-faced and headed out the door... praise God, 1 less mouse (mice 2, women 1). We took the rest of the bed apart and found their homes, 4 in all (yes, your math is correct we have only seen 3). As we are sweeping the nests away #4 makes his appearance and heads for the stove. We have wised up to this whole thing now and Mom goes straight for the stove and heads him off, he turns and follows the other out the door (mice 2, women 2)! We will consider that a victory. We never saw #1 and #2 again (thank God). We finished cleaning the house when Cal got back 30 minutes later with the rest of the supplies. He had missed the whole thing and wasn't impressed with our story.
The house was spotless when we left and there where little presents placed strategically around the house for #1 and #2. I'd wish them good luck but I'm sure they were laughing the whole time from the stove thinking, "We aren't stupid enough to eat that but we do appreciate you cleaning the house... it was getting pretty dirty in here." Gotta love nature. Oh, I forgot to mention... during this whole ordeal we could hear Cameron laughing in the car making fun of us. I'll cut him a little slack, I'd be laughing at us too! And yes, Daddy and Cameron did get to fish.