the tale of despereaux

I was a few minutes late for my Pilates certification class this morning because there was a mouse in my bedroom.

Now. I was not late because I gave in to fits of hysterics; I don't respond in that regard to mice. (Spiders and snakes, yes.) I was late because Puppy saw the mouse at the same moment I did.

And she gave chase. And I assisted.

Let me just say it's impressive watching her hunt like that. Unfortunately, it was not a successful hunt. The mouse darted into the closet. It's a small closet, but there are things like shoes and a laundry hamper that were in Puppy's way. So my job was to move those things out of the way. In retrospect, I ought to have closed the door behind us, blocked the gap with a pair of jeans, and spider-man crawled up the wall while suspending the laundry hamper in midair. This would have been most helpful to Puppy. Especially since after a few minutes of darting back and forth, the mouse finally got smart and darted past my legs into the bedroom; Puppy could not give adequate chase because I was in the way. And she doesn't run so well on the wood floors. (She's amazing on carpet, I'll say though.)

Regardless, I only give the mouse another week to live. The last time Puppy caught scent of a mouse, she had captured and killed it within two days. Yes, that's a high standard to maintain, but I believe in her.