Eeeww

So last night I'm in the bathroom brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. My cat Pi is sitting on the counter next to me. Suddenly, Pi's ears prick up and I see her bolt out of the bathroom. About the same time, I swear I hear a very faint cry coming from somewhere in the house. "Something is not right", me thinks, so I go to investigate. I peer around the upstairs bedrooms, nothing. Then I hear the sound again, a faint screeching coming from...gasp!...downstairs. So I'm tip-toeing down the stairs, fearful of what might be making the screeching noise, then out into the foyer where I find...gasp again!...my other cat Tiki, delicately holding this tiny little screaming gray mouse IN HER MOUTH! "Oh god, oh god" I'm thinking, "what do I do?!" A mouse is not something that you want to retrieve using only a Paper Mitt of Protection (PMoP)! So I hiss, "Tiki!" whereupon she looks very, very guilty and sort of "racewalks" past me (not running, mind you, so as to not drop the mouse, but rather walking very quickly) and up the stairs. "Aaaaah, no no, not upstairs!" I'm shrieking as I follow her up. So she gets to the top, looks side to side, nowhere to run, so back down the stairs she goes again (racewalking). So I follow her down again, she panics, back up the stairs she goes, with me (and Pi) right behind her. So this goes on and on for like...FIFTEEN times up and down the stairs. During this entire episode I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I will do once I catch her (and stalling, which is why I didn't catch her sooner...and hoping my spousal unit will take pity on my pleas and come do the dirty work for me, which he didn't). So finally I grab the cat and she drops the mouse, which is THANKFULLY still alive, and I gently pick up the little mouse...with a pair of tongs (no way am I touching that!)...and take it outside and set it free...in my neighbors yard (muahaha!). The entire incident was horrifying. So now I'm a little worried because I have to ask myself, "Where did that mouse come from?" Obviously from somewhere inside the house, seeing as my cats' feet have never touched the ground outdoors, but egads, that means that I had a MOUSE inside my HOUSE! And I keep a clean house...really! To make matters worse, this is actually the second mouse to turn up...the first being a dead one found in the garage last week, which my son was gracious enough to dispose of for me. So I suppose this means that as the temperatures outside have been dropping, the little mousies in the woods behind my house are seeking warmer accomodations. I hope the little guy carried word back that they can't stay here.

[Edit 8:15pm: OH, GROSS!! Tiki - 2, Mice - 0. Again, the same chase (between me and the cat) ensued, except this time Tiki jumped up INTO MY BED with it. This is no longer funny. Bleeeeeeech. Hardware store, here we come.]