Build a better mousetrap.
Jan. 23rd, 2006 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angledgeRandom trip down memory lane for you all.
When I was a kid, my family lived in the East Bay, in a house on the edge of Mt. Diablo State Park. The wild areas behind our house had a huge rodent population, whose numbers followed the boom-bust cycle. This meant that every few years, our house would be overrun with mice.
During one of the mice seasons, I looked up one day to see my Siamese cat, Bach, playing catch-me with a mouse on the kitchen counter. The mouse was dodging & weaving among the Flour-Sugar-Coffee-Tea canisters with Bach in hot pursuit. When my mom saw this, she moved to kill the mouse. Our three dogs, who always were following my mom, came with her into the kitchen.
In an act of insane desperation, the mouse leapt off the counter to the kitchen floor. The dogs greeted it ("HI!") with a high-speed chase back into the living room. The mouse shot under the sofa, which the dogs quickly surrounded (Bach was still in the kitchen, probably yowling, "Hey that's MY mouse!"). My mom & I lifted the sofa, while my brother, armed with a broom, waited to deliver the coup de grace. But when the mouse became visible, Gabby the Glamourous Schnauzer dove in & grabbed the mouse in her jaws. The mouse, ever the daredevil, bit her on her lip. Gabby yipped in surprise & dropped the mouse. The mouse hightailed it back into the kitchen, where the cat cut off his escape to the garage. My mom, my brother, the three dogs, & I were galloping in from the living room.
The mouse scurried under the refrigerator, causing the entire three-species posse to screech to a halt. My mom & I immediately began discussing whether the fridge was too heavy to move, & whether we should go find my dad to help us. The dogs were sniffing under the fridge & whining. The cat had jumped back up on the counter to oversee the procedure.
Then the refrigerator fan came on.
*SQUEEEEEE!*
A tiny spatter of blood sprayed out from under the refrigerator.
FINAL SCORE
Dogs: 0.
Cat: 0.
Humans: 0.
Refrigerator: 1.
Mouse: -1.
When I was a kid, my family lived in the East Bay, in a house on the edge of Mt. Diablo State Park. The wild areas behind our house had a huge rodent population, whose numbers followed the boom-bust cycle. This meant that every few years, our house would be overrun with mice.
During one of the mice seasons, I looked up one day to see my Siamese cat, Bach, playing catch-me with a mouse on the kitchen counter. The mouse was dodging & weaving among the Flour-Sugar-Coffee-Tea canisters with Bach in hot pursuit. When my mom saw this, she moved to kill the mouse. Our three dogs, who always were following my mom, came with her into the kitchen.
In an act of insane desperation, the mouse leapt off the counter to the kitchen floor. The dogs greeted it ("HI!") with a high-speed chase back into the living room. The mouse shot under the sofa, which the dogs quickly surrounded (Bach was still in the kitchen, probably yowling, "Hey that's MY mouse!"). My mom & I lifted the sofa, while my brother, armed with a broom, waited to deliver the coup de grace. But when the mouse became visible, Gabby the Glamourous Schnauzer dove in & grabbed the mouse in her jaws. The mouse, ever the daredevil, bit her on her lip. Gabby yipped in surprise & dropped the mouse. The mouse hightailed it back into the kitchen, where the cat cut off his escape to the garage. My mom, my brother, the three dogs, & I were galloping in from the living room.
The mouse scurried under the refrigerator, causing the entire three-species posse to screech to a halt. My mom & I immediately began discussing whether the fridge was too heavy to move, & whether we should go find my dad to help us. The dogs were sniffing under the fridge & whining. The cat had jumped back up on the counter to oversee the procedure.
Then the refrigerator fan came on.
*SQUEEEEEE!*
A tiny spatter of blood sprayed out from under the refrigerator.
FINAL SCORE
Dogs: 0.
Cat: 0.
Humans: 0.
Refrigerator: 1.
Mouse: -1.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 11:40 pm (UTC)O RLY?
Date: 2006-01-24 01:38 pm (UTC)Re: O RLY?
Date: 2006-01-24 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 02:43 am (UTC)Although I didn't know you lived near Mt. Diablo. Ah, I recall many long nights climbing that mountain, looking for Baal, beating up everything that moved to get to the Worldstone Chamber and... but that's a story for another time.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 09:21 am (UTC)Computer games are good, too.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 02:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 11:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:42 am (UTC)uuargh
Date: 2006-01-24 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-30 11:51 pm (UTC)And I hate to beat a poor dead horse, but I think the devil actually went down to Alabama. I went down to Georgia.