Minneapolis Adventures

On Sunday afternoon, IrishTenor and I were sitting in his living room watching football when I saw the mouse skitter out from under the couch. My immediate response was to squeal, "Oh my God, it's a mouse!"

IrishTenor: "What?"
Me (borderline shrieking): "A mouse. Under your couch."
IrishTenor: "Where's Zach?"

Zach, as it turned out, was sleeping in the closet. IrishTenor went into the closet, grabbed Zach, and informed him that it was his job to take care of the mouse.

Zach's reply was a surprised grunt. He didn't take care of the mouse.

Ten minutes later, I saw the mouse again. Squeal, rinse, repeat.

This time, IrishTenor was bound and determined that his cat would kill that mouse. He pulled the cat over to the couch again.

IrishTenor: "Zach! Get the mouse!"
Zach: "Mrow?"
IrishTenor: "Zach, don't stand there like a moron. Get that mouse!"

I stood on one couch so the mouse wouldn't get me (yes, I am scared of mice just like Maya...fuck you), and IrishTenor stood on the other shouting instructions to his cat.

"No, you idiot, it's over here. Behind the speaker! Zach! Stop being stupid and LOOK BEHIND THE SPEAKER!"

Again, Zach failed to take care of the mouse. This time we decided to take action in order to facilitate Zach's hunting. We moved both couches away from the wall so Zach could have better access to where we suspected the mouse was hiding. Zach sniffed around for quite awhile, but he had no luck locating the mouse. Eventually we gave up and moved the furniture back to its proper place.

Late that evening, after IrishTenor went to bed, I was up writing a paper while TheViolinist was watching TV. Suddenly I heard TheViolinist exclaim, "Zach got a mouse!" Sure enough, Zach had finally killed the mouse. I restrained an indignant, protesting Zach while TheViolinist disposed of the kill. If you've never held onto a large cat with a big bad predator complex while someone else takes his precious kill and throws it outside, I tell you: That's pure fun.

TheViolinist announced the next morning that Zach killed a second mouse just minutes after the first met its death. RIP vermin.