Well – it’s official. We have mice. Fairly brave ones too. This morning as I sat down at the kitchen table to fire up the ol’ coal powered laptop one of the little dark gray beasties strolled along the cupboard at floor level right out in the open in broad daylight. Clearly that can’t be a good sign. We knew Matt had a mouse in his room and I have deployed casual efforts to catch the animal using a live trap. Matt would even stay up sometimes to watch it journey across his room in search of food, once even attempting to drag a sucker back into its intra-wall home.

 

I’m not sure how they got in or where they came from. I don’t recall any coming to the front door for any reason. The kids have a strict no entry rule for strangers and we are not close to any mice to my knowledge.

 

Obviously things have escalated and action must be taken. They are obviously organizing their forces for an assault. The Household Security level is now orange and only the strictest tactics will be used at this point. To paraphrase Churchill we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our home, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

 

Well at this point I think we are all very certain of what our next step has to be:

 

It is clear we must purchase an owl.

 

It’s not going to be pretty. The screeching and flapping will make it difficult to sleep at night but it seems the only thing to do. Not sure what kind to get. A good barn owl makes the most sense but a great horned owl or a snowy owl might go better with our color scheme. We’ll see. I will keep you up to date on the ongoing war…and yes…the post is an official declaration of war. As we send in our troops we pray for low casualties but we are realistic and recognize that in all wars there is a cost.

 

More dispatches from the front as we have time.