christmas tragedy

The first snowfall gave us an opportunity to see exactly what animals were passing through our yard. Rabbits, squirrels, and dogs made up the bulk of pawprints, but we were surprised to see a tiny shuffled path through the snow leading right up to a crack behind our kitchen steps. A vole, Sam said. A mouse, I thought, is living in our basement. Neither of us mind the spiders in the basement, and a mouse didn't bother us either, as long as it kept to itself.

Last week, Sam saw a little furry something running across our kitchen floor. It seemed that the mouse preferred the heat of the kitchen under the cupboards. This was too close to our food, so Sam went to the hardware and bought some old-fashioned mouse traps, which we set out with peanut butter crackers.

For three days, the mouse robbed our traps in broad daylight when we were just in the other room. Yesterday, though, we heard the snap, and the little mouse lost its life on Christmas Day.

Then Sam threw it out in a snowdrift to become a mousecicle.