Of Mice and .....

...well, you know.  It's that time of year in the rodent world, time to start preparing for winter. Maybe has been crouching on the kitchen floor in a hunting stance and staring under the oven door.  She's begun her second decade  now, and I don't know what's going on in her head; almost exactly ten years ago, when she was still a kitten, she caught her one and only mouse (as far as we know) as it came out from under the oven drawer.  So it could be she's reliving past dreams of her youthful glory, or else there really is a mouse presence there.
    I pulled the drawer out from under the stove, and checked.  I saw no signs of mouse infiltration, if you know what I mean.  Maybe was very interested in the area though, so I left the drawer, with its content of pans and lids, out for a while.  She kept staring, and eventually crawled into the space, and lay down there for a while. So far, nothing. I'll probably replace the drawer today.
  Earlier in the summer, I'd re-stained the outdoor shed with some leftover redwood paint from the basement, and, wanting to do something outside today while it's still nice weather, I took  the broom over to sweep off the grass and webs that had already begun to accumulate on and near the shed. I opened the doors to it, and swept inside.  A box has been in there for over four years now, filled with a few board games and a number of nicely framed pictures.  Time to deal with it, I thought, and carried the box out to the nearby picnic table.  I placed the box on top of the table and leaned over to remove  a picture, and then another.  At that, I found myself staring closeup into the eyes of an immobilized mouse.  She just sat there, inches from my face, and stared.  Until she heard a scream that is, a scream that came from some primal source within me.  Because I'm not really afraid of mice.  At that, she took off, and I saw the reason why she'd stayed in that nest of grass. Inside  it were seven little pink squirming baby newborn mice,   I just walked away and left them there.  This morning the box is still out there, on the picnic table.  What lies within, I don't know.
   Does anyone need some picture frames?  They're really nice.