To catch a mouse

I've been sharing my house lately.  My guest was not invited.  And though they were hardly taking up any space at all, and left me to go about my daily routines without much interruption, I knew they couldn't stay.  Their personal hygiene was wanting, and I'd hear him, messing about in the kitchen, as I lay in bed, eyes closed, waiting to go to my dreams.

A few days ago, I could take it no more.  I lay down on the kitchen floor and looked my guest straight in the eye.  'You are going to have to leave'. 
He turned away.  How rude! When, that night I heard him, downstairs in the house I'd put to bed I resolved to put a stop to his capers and reclaim my house. 
I took receipt of a package.  Inside was a little 'hotel'.  My hope uplifted.  I decorated it with bedding and a huge feast of palm sugared peanut butter. Organic of course. 

I woke to rain throwing itself at my window.  I'd not slept well.  My footfall down the stairs lacked any sign of elegance.  As the kettle was boiling and I was squeezing the life from a lemon into my morning cup, I remembered my little tin hotel.  Had my guest found the peanut butter?

He peeked through the skylight in his 'hotel'.  No distress did he show.  I felt victorious.  Success was mine.   I pulled my boots over my blue flowery pyjamas and wrapped myself in my winter coat and gently carried the box down the hill, across the ring road, down past the wood and stopped at a tree stump, level with a horse barn.

I carefully pressed in the side to release the lid and knelt to watch him make a dash for it.  Only, he didn't.  He just sat there twitching his adorable little nose.  Only then did I notice the second tail.  He had company!

With delicacy, I eased my little friends out of the box and stood to watch them dart under a blackberry hedge.  Aah.  And we all lived happily ever after.

There are two morals to this tale.

1. careful what you wish for and remember that God is in the detail.  I'd been thinking about sharing my house lately.  I didn't specify who with or their level of person hygiene.
2. always go for the compassionate - WIN  WIN solution.

Thanks to Proctor Pest Stop and their genius, humane mousetrap, for making it easy to catch the mice in the kindest way possible!