this summer at fintry we had unexpected guests. a family of them, actually.

our first day, i walked into a ground floor room and saw charles staring intently at the carpet. seconds later, from behind the bookcase scampered a mouse. it looked like a fieldmouse, really long back legs, round large ears.

my dad and i set up the mouse trap (a humane one, that traps the mouse, not one that has poisoned food or breaks its neck) and figured in a couple of days the problem would be over. it wasn't.

at night, the mouse would come out and hide around the refrigerator. we weren't sure why. the kids thought it fantastic, and cheered for the mouse. the adults couldn't capture it (although we tried while mum stayed in her room with the door shut) until one day we met the mouse's achilles heel, her son, jackson.

mandy called it jackson, my kids called him gus gus. he was, admittedly a very cute mouse. one night, we surprised mama mouse as she was carrying jackson in her mouth and when she saw us she dropped him in surprised. mandy scooped jackson into a tin. she began making plans to take him back to edmonton with her. (as one would). she kept him in the bathtub that night, hoping that the mum would come to collect him and get caught in the tub herself. i stayed out of it, because i sensed no good was coming out of the situation. jackson's shrill little squeaks were quite heartrending and rent the night.

at 3am, charles got up to do a wee, and found jackson and his mum in the tub. he started filming their reunion when it was cut short…mama jumped out of the tub, effectively leaving her orphan son alone again. sucks to be you, jackson. but we figured she had six more kids to worry about.

have i mentioned jackson was tiny? so tiny that the next day he escaped. mandy still isn't sure how. possibly when she was on the plane with westjet asking if jckson could fly on the plane in her pocket, like a mosquito, or if she would have to buy him his own seat. or get a carrier.

he did disappear though. this is what i meant when i said no good would come of it. that night, sela came downstairs and said, "i just saw gusgus. we was upstairs looking for food." she wasn't scared, just disappointed that i wouldn't give her food and sad that she didn't see more of him.

for the next week, i saw little of mama and nothing of jackson. but one night, i had just turned out the light and i heard a rustling noise. sebastian was sleeping in the room with us, and sela in the single room next to the twin beds room where carys and jasper were. and then something scampered along my arm and i realised it was the fricking mouse. there had been pellets in our room for a few days so i wasn't too surprised, but still! the cheek to come out while i was in there!

i jumped up and turned on the light. saw a flash of tail. immediately put pillows around sebastian. crept out, closed the other bedroom doors. walked back into my room and pulled a pillow off sebastian, and pulled the pillowcase off the pillow. opened it. my priority was to get the mouse away from my son,  but if it came near him…i would be waiting. my swing is pretty good and there was a wall nearby.

the mouse took the easy way out and ran. i followed her and was impressed at how briskly she took the steps. then again, i must have seemed like the hound of the baskervilles.

when lita arrived, we told her of the presence of jackson and his mummy. she looked at me and said, "is mandy gone?" and i said, "yes".

"do you want me to kill it?" she asked and i said, "yes".

a couple of nights later, mama mouse foolishly wended its way into pams room. silly silly silly. pam WOKE UP LITA and asked her to come upstairs and kill the mouse for her. lita grabbed a huge iron spatula and was on the job.

no luck.

again, pam sighted the luckless mouse and sent lita on the hunt. and again, nothing.

charles saw the mouse a couple more times in our room, but he got no further than anyone else did.

now, are we wrong to be killing one of God's creatures? mandy was upset that we were trying, but honestly, rat scat isn't so healthy to be around. and that mouse would have walked over my little boy if i hadn't stopped her. therefore, i don't think my actions were terribly wrong. i was actually quite proud of myself.

does this seem hypocritical given i am the welcome wagon for geckos?