1:00am: A mouse just ran past two Beagles, one Doberman, Golden Retriever, Jack Russell and a Schipperke and not one of them cared–One Beagle made a half hearted attempt to rouse the others and “get the mouse” but not even one dog rose to the occasion. Clearly my dogs are lazy and too well fed. Do Bats eat mice?

1:09am: I don’t want them to catch and kill the mouse because then I would have to scream “DROP IT” and clean up mouse guts. I just want them to show an interest in catching the mouse. I want to send a message to the mouse that it should leave.

1:11am: Is that too much to ask? I am just going to forget about the mouse and go to bed.

1:20am: Ok–this is getting worse…the mouse followed me into my bedroom. I just saw him run behind Lada (Doberman-mix) and now he is hiding behind my dresser. I think it’s a game–I’m sure he stuck out his tongue and said—Nanny Nanny Boo Boo you can’t get me.

1:31am: I’m not afraid of mice–but I don’t want to sleep with one. I have lots of yummy dog food in the basement–why is this mouse following me from my living room to my bedroom??

1:35am: I feel like I am talking to myself. Wait I am talking to myself unless you count the mouse and my worthless dogs.

1:40am: If that mouse comes out again I’m going to shoot him.

1:42am: Not really. I don’t even own a gun. But if I did I would shoot him. If my mother was here ,she would shoot him. I wish my mother was here. I will throw a shoe at it.

1:43am: It would be a real shame if I missed the mouse and clobbered one of these dogs with my shoe. A real shame.

1:46am: Sigh. I’m going to try and sleep—but with the lights on and a shoe in one hand.

1:50am: Wait!! You don’t suppose the mouse is Joe do you—Crap–does anyone know what a mouse symbolizes? I guess I will google. ….

1:56am: If a mouse has come into your life, ask yourself if you have neglected the trivial but necessary things in life. Have you become too fixed on one or more activities and are not paying attention to opportunities around you? Are you trying to do too many things all at once? Mouse can teach us how to focus and how to achieve the ‘big’ things by working on the little things. . .

2:00am: It’s not Joe. I remember when we had mice when Joe was alive… we were lying in bed talking about the best way to solve the mice problem and I said that I didn’t want to trap them because it was just such an awful way to die.  Joe said he would much rather be trapped than poisoned. It was one of our better heart-to-heart, late night conversations. We let Orkin handle it.

2:04am: I will call Orkin first thing in the morning. For those of you in the South and Southwest–Can you believe, I don’t have a regular exterminator that is almost a member of the family?  Well, I don’t, but I wish I did.

2:06am: Why do these kind of things happen at night? I would handle it so much better during the day. During the day it would just be a stupid little grey mouse but at 2:06am in the morning it’s a giant mouse with huge fangs that is just waiting for me to turn off the light so it can fang me.

2:07am: And now, of-course, it’s not just one mouse but a whole effen mouse family. I’m sure of it.

2:10am: Do mice have fangs?

2:11am: Now I have to go to the bathroom.

2:12am: I will hold it. I’m sure it’s waiting for me to get off my bed to jump me. It’s an evil mouse.

2:14am: I think, I hear the mouse behind my dresser.

2:18am: I have decided one of the loneliest feelings in the whole world is to be stranded on your bed alone with a mouse waiting to fang you and having to go to the BATHROOM!!

2:20am: I’m going to try and sleep, with the light on, having to go to the bathroom with a shoe in my hand.

2:21am: Now I feel like I can hear the mouse or family of mice. That’s not rational…If I can’t hear the stove timer when I’m in my kitchen–I most certainly can’t hear the high squeal of a mouse.

2:22am: I’m pretty sure I just heard the mouse or mice.

2:24am: I’m going to try and sleep with my the light on, my computer in my lap, having to go to the bathroom. Wait…There is a tall laundry basket with clothes on the other side of my bed. You don’t think the mouse will jump in the basket do you? I knew I should have folded that laundry and put it away.

2:35am: Note to self do not google a picture of a mouse for a blog post, when you have a mouse in your bedroom, at 2:36am in the morning.

2:36am: Ok I’m going to sign off for now. Wish me luck. I will check in later. Maybe sooner than later….

2:41am: Rascal and I just scared each other to death–she moved suddenly and I thought it was the mouse.

2:42am: El Nighto.

2:43am: Don’t leave me. I feel like this post is my security blanket—my life line. Clearly I’m now crazy.

2:44am: Let recap: I’m being held hostage in my bedroom by a grey mouse. I have to go to the bathroom but I’m afraid too. The light is on and I have a shoe beside me so I can club the mouse if it tries to fang me. I have started to itch.  I would like to try to go to sleep but I’m afraid if I stop typing I will be all alone with the mouse. I’ll have to do a mattress donation, I am afraid.

2:47am. Ok. I am going to be brave. I can do this. 1…2… 3….

2:50am: I’m still here but I’m going NOW.