Mice and hamsters and turtles, oh my!

The Mouse

On Friday night, just as I was heading to bed, I walked into the kitchen for a moment.

I spy with my little eye...

Hobbes the cat spying on a baby mouse.

Eek! We get waves of mice problems around here. They'll come and try to set up camp behind the stove, then scurry across our counters, and unfortunately for them, encounter a cat or a trap and meet their maker.

After twenty minutes of watching this literal game of cat and mouse, I got tired of waiting for Hobbes to catch the mouse, and tired of watching this mouse try to scurry out of the sink (which it couldn't), and trapped it in a jar. For a moment, I felt like a cat in that excitement of what it is like to catch something. It's pretty awesome.

I left it in the jar overnight... all to fall like a sucker for cute little Jerry. I told him, "Good night, Jerry. Good work. I'll most likely kill you in the morning." (Name that movie!!!)

That's right, by morning I named the darn thing. (Thanks Brandie for the name idea, when she said "Did Tom catch Jerry yet?"). As I headed to run some errands later that day, I ran into PetSmart, and to my surprise found this amazing cage on clearance! It was usually $36.99, and I got it on clearance for $8.67. SCORE! Pet mouse, here we come! Just so you know how much of a sucker I am for cute little baby critters, I even got it a bag of treats.

I shredded up newspaper, I gave it some treats and left over food, a fun little house, and do you know how that ungrateful rat bastard repaid me? Baby Jerry escaped from the cage during the middle of the night! Jerk.

The Hamster

The boys were very excited to see the mouse in the cage in the morning. Too bad Jerry bailed on us. They weren't heartbroken. I suppose growing up as little "farm boys" they are accustomed to things running off or dying. However, that new cage looked all sad, lonely, and empty without some sort of little critter to keep it warm.

Well, we already have the cage, might as well stick something else in there! Back off to PetSmart we go.

Meet our new hamster. She doesn't officially have a name, but Elijah and I are really liking Ophelia. Let's just hope she doesn't run off and drown herself. Ba-da-ching! That's my Jay-Leno-Style-Punch-Line-Drum-Hit, by the way. (Don't give me that blank stare about the Ophelia joke... Hamlet people, Hamlet!) I had a shlew of other ideas for her name. Everyone gives me weird looks when it comes to my names for pets. They usually come from mythology or literature. This hamster just looks like she deserves a Shakespearean name.

Aww... she's sleeping.

Or maybe I should name her Jillian Michaels, because all she has done the whole time I'm typing is exercised on her wheel.

The Turtle

We were invited to a neighbor's 50th birthday party shin-dig on Saturday. This was our first time going to their house. You know the coolest part?

They have a pet turtle!!

This sucker is HUGE. They say he weighs about 30lbs.

My little boys were fascinated with him. It's the first time they've ever seen one up close and personal. We even got to pet it! It was very exciting.

The Tent

Ahh tent building. A favorite childhood past time. Or, as Mama likes to call it, cheap entertainment! When I was a wee lil' thing, I loved building forts and tents in the living room. It is the sweetest thing that the boys are old enough now to appreciate the joy of building a "tent" in the living room! Can you spot AJ's head popping out of there?

It reminds me of when I was a child! I won't deny, I was a bit jealous that I am too big to crawl in there myself. I suppose that is why Elijah & AJ have each other... they can enjoy their company in their tent. Elijah was so thrilled off of it, he wanted to sleep in there tonight.

Ah, no.