Mice don't really look like Mickey

OK, actually I never really saw the little visitor - just a blur of what looked like Eloise fluff blowing through the kitchen. But Caitlin saw it - and said it jumped a pile of laundry and the dogs' water dish before racing through the kitchen - like Mighty Mouse.

Luckily, we have enough kitchen chairs for everyone to jump on - except Megan who jumped into the bathtub - and the screams!

They say most of the time wild animals are more afraid of us than we are of them - don't believe it. And, of course, there was not a man to be found. Sam wasn't home and neither were the Grandpas - finally Casey (aka our knight in shining armor) came to save us - armed with mousetraps, peanut butter and bread.

He checked under the dishwasher, under the sink, under the microwave cart - apparently the mouse was Houdini or maybe it really was just a really big furball. Casey fixed some tiny little peanut butter sandwiches to put on the traps and placed them where the dogs couldn't reach them - Tucker tried.

Normally, I'm against violence (OK, really it's the mess that bothers me) and prefer the catch and release method but Casey came to save us and I wasn't about to argue with his methods - especially after remembering getting woke up in the middle of the night to bloodcurdling screams from my mom when something ran over her foot in the bathroom - and that was just the hamster. I didn't want some germ-carrying, possibly rabid rat doing that to me and then bringing friends and family to join the fun.

None of this would have been happening if Lucy (the cat) was still alive and here to protect me. She kept the house safe and vermin-free for at least 10 years - other than the ones she left as presents on the porch. The dogs never even barked and I'm not sure they even left the couch to investigate all the screaming in the kitchen.

Well, just a few minutes after Casey left the house, we heard a loud snap - and went flying out the door to stop him from leaving. He came back and the trap was empty so he reset it.

After a not-very-restful night's sleep - with Megan - I peeked at the traps before I left for work and they were all empty. I guess sometime after I left the mouse decided he needed breakfast and Casey's peanut butter sandwiches must have been pretty good because he risked not one but two traps - but only got to eat one snack - RIP little mouse.

Casey disposed of the body - with strict instructions to fling it somewhere that the dogs wouldn't find it and try to bring it back in the house. Hopefully, he was just a nomad passing through and not a family man.