Meow. Meow.

I was tidying up the back porch this morning and reached down to pick up the canvas grill cover that had been lying in the corner all week. Much to my dismay, a mouse was inside. Even though it didn’t scare me (much) I ran inside to get my brave son to deal with it.

When Jack peeked inside he found one mad mamma mouse, a nest, and 15 brand new baby mice. He gently carried the cover down to the tree line and freed them into the woods. 

One of 15 baby mice born inside our grill cover.

No big deal, right? No harm done, right? That’s what you are thinking. But, you haven't spent the last week trying to unravel what went wrong with our van. Why were the shock plug cables cut? And who would have done such a thing? Why was the ABS light coming on? Why wouldn’t the speedometer work?

Turns out, a little mouse family – like the one Jack carried away this morning – had taken up residence under our van hood and munched on various (but important) cables and wires. Little did we know that people in the country put mouse deterrent canisters in their cars, trucks and tractors to keep such critters at bay. We are learning our lessons, but mostly the hard way and, in this case, threatening to make us as poor as church mice.

So, maybe we do need a barn cat (even though we don’t have a barn yet). If we put a bell on its collar, perhaps the songbirds can be forewarned of an imminent pounce – but the same is probably true for the mice….