Thursday night, my friends Jen and Todd invited me over for dinner and Tivo. I was very excited as I had not seen them in months and I was able to meet their son, Izzy, for the first time. (I just love baby blogs.) After Izzy went down for bed, the three of us sat down to devour some extremely tasty chili and wine. During supper, they were telling me about the troubles they've had with their misbehaving cat, William. As they were telling me the stories of William escaping the house, meowing, jumping on the counters, etc., we heard this THUD from the kitchen followed by the tinkling of William's collar and tags. Jen and Todd simultaneously looked at each other with an "I'm gonna strangle that cat" expression on their faces.
But then, William ran through the room WITH A MOUSE IN HIS MOUTH!!! Jen and I gave each other an "OH MY GOD! I AM TERRIFIED OF MICE" look. The first thing I did is case the surroundings for the easiest place to jump up on a chair so that the mouse couldn't run up my leg and eat my eyeballs... a fear that I had as a child which sometimes pops out at these random times. But suprisingly, I kept my cool.
Jen and Todd jumped up and were trying to encourage William to not go upstairs with the mouse and either go outside or in the basement with the mouse. And I just kinda sat there and watched. Finally, they managed to enclose William in the back hallway with an open entrance to the basement. There is a big glass door which allowed us to watch William with the mouse. It was creepy but very cool. I felt ok about it... I was just a couple feet from the mouse (albeit there was a thick door between me and the mouse), but I didn't have that all-encompassing fear that I normally have when coming face-to-face with a mouse. Jen was a little afraid that the mouse would squeeze out from under the door and start running around the house. We watched William and the mouse for about 10 minutes through the glass. During dinner, we had been listening to Wilco, but when the cat and mouse live entertainment began, the music switched. Todd told me it was Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker record... perfect soundtrack music for William and his mouse.
We never got around to watching any Tivo, but I told them that watching a live episode of Animal Planet was the best. William played with the mouse for awhile... batting it around, chasing it, catching it in his mouth and carrying it around, but eventually, he lost it in the basement and gave up. Oh well, I suppose this episode is one of those "To Be Continued" ones, although I am sure that Jen would rather it never happen again. But I told them that living in an old house goes hand-in-hand with living with mice. Maybe I can return to see William catch a mouse again on Animal Planet Live!, but only if Ryan Adams is playing.
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