A Mouse? A Really Big Mouse?

I got finished with my tasks a bit late yesterday. Fridays are challenging, sometimes, since one of my 'creative' blogs has a post due then. And, as often happens, I had nothing in the net when I trawled my imagination until rather late. So I wrote about ducks.

The rest of the family was quite sensibly in bed by that time and the lights were out on the 1st (ground) floor where my desk is. Except for my task lighting and a light in the kitchen.

It's quiet at night in this neighborhood: except when there's an event at the school. But that's another topic.

Anyway, I heard something. In the living room. A sort of skittering sound. In the dark.

Okay: once, it might have been a pile at one of the kids' workstations sliding into a more stable configuration.

I heard it again. Definitely a skitter. And another sound: something sliding? It didn't last long enough for me to identify.

A mouse. Maybe. They get in, sometimes, in the fall: and we'd had at least one in residence in the early winter. We couldn't catch it. Them? I think they're getting smarter.

I heard it again. Sounded like a mouse. Sort of. A big mouse.

There it was again. A really big mouse.

I was not at all sleepy by then.

Since I wanted to pinpoint its location and at least identify the critter before taking further action, I didn't want to spook it: so I left the light off.

And waited.

After hearing a whole lot of skitters and shuffles, and another possible sliding sound, I had a pretty good bearing on the source of the sound.

Whatever it was, it sounded like it must weight several pounds.

A five-pound mouse??

It wasn't entirely dark: some light comes in from the kitchen. Which wasn't all that reassuring. I might not have seen a mouse, in the direction I was looking, but I'd have expected to see some trace of a critter weighing upwards of two or three pounds - assuming that it was moving around.

Nothing. I saw nothing.

Finally, around 4:00, with skitters not happening quite as frequently as they had at the peak, a few hours previously, I decided that whatever it was, wasn't going anywhere.

And I needed sleep.

Turns out, my wife had decided - correctly, in my view - that since it was so windy out, the rabbit should be let in. She'd moved his enclosure outside yesterday, I'd secured its entry, and Giol had been energetically nibbling grass yesterday afternoon.

So, my wife told our son to tell #1 daughter to go out, put Giol in his carrier, and take him in. Which #1 daughter did: leaving the carrier in the living room and returning to bed.

Without telling me that we now had a pet carrier in the living room, with a rabbit in it.

I hope to get to bed in better time tonight.