Building a Better Mouse Trap?

Hil has found the broom and brought it to me and returned to the steps to watch. I need to think about things.

I would like to be able to take one Wayne Gretzky broom swipe at the mouse and have it go sailing out the front door.

But Trinket is an indoor cat and a former stray. I keep her inside because I am afraid if she got out, she'd never come home. Or get hurt. Or get lost and not be able to come home. And all of those scenarios break my heart. She is such a dear sweet thing and so appreciative of the home we've given her. Yet her instincts tell her to run, and so she tries to. Every time the door opens. Every time I return with groceries or take out the trash, I am on high alert. While my hands are full, she can get to a full gallop and be out the door and up a tree in a matter of moments.

So my initial thought, that I'd open the big heavy door and prop the outside door so it gaped like an empty goalie net, is out the window. The challenge here is to have the mouse on the outside of the dwelling and the cat on the inside of the dwelling (not unlike the challenge Lars and I once faced when a bat had gotten trapped between our double hung windows and we could not figure out the mechanics of giving it an opportunity to get out, without also leaving it an opportunity to get in...again, a dropping dead at the scene situation for me.) And I know, once I start brooming, the cat will give chase and follow the mouse right out into the yard. I could ask Hil to hold Trinket but I am sure that would end with a lot of clawing and meowing and Band-Aids.

So I open the heavy door and leave the screen door closed for now. I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

I return to the dining room to find Trinket at the far end, near the windows. Mouse has attempted to make a move and Trinket has essentially told it, "Not on my watch." Trinket is beginning to look interested again.

Trinket takes a swipe at Mouse with claws fully extended. The poor little pathetic thing becomes momentarily airborne and I am leaping to avoid having it land on me. Hil is bent over laughing while I try not to lose sight of the mouse as it lands and skids across the wood floor.

Mouse is in luck. It has tumbled under the radiator cover.

Trinket is pissed. She is on her side with her arm extended to an astonishing length and she is wild eyed and swiping at the mouse (as I am sure it is cowering against the wall...)

I decide that if this eradication is going to happen I need to act, and begin poking under the radiator, double teaming the mouse. And praying all the while that I don't retract the broom to find that I've skewered Mouse because I would truly have a heart attack and die right on the scene.

Mouse knows enough to make a break for it. It is running from beneath the radiator toward the center hall. Well, maybe not running. Walking with purpose? It is completely winded. Yet squeaking. (And for me the squeaking is the worst part. Like the heart beat in the Tell Tale Heart.)

I am also obviously panicking that as the Mouse, blind as they all are, makes its break, it will run up my leg (and again, I will drop dead) so I am dramatically jumping around one leg at a time trying to prevent that from happening and giving Hil fits of laughter.)

I get my act together enough to sweep the little thing toward the door. It is so completely pooped that it rolls pathetically as I swoosh it across the floor. But with each swoosh I am shrieking just a little. (and Hil is wishing she'd thought to make a YouTube video before now) Trinket has scampered off somewhere in fear of the broom I suppose, and I am able to sweep Mouse to the little groove between the door and the threshold. It is too tired to climb out, so I have time to open the door just a bit and plop the little vermin out onto the porch. I watch it limp away to God Only Knows Where.