Thursday, July 21

Warning: This Tea May Disrupt Your Sleep


Innocent (this time) But Useless

I awoke with a start. I could hear water. Moving. Next to my head. Not good.
"Mol-LY!" I hissed. Silence.

Four-and-a-half-pound Molly Doodlebug (aka The Doodle Monster) is able to daintily slip into places larger cats cannot. And she has an annoying habit of slinking onto my nightstand in the middle of the night, poking her tiny, furry face into the tall glass of water I always set there, and Thud! knocking it over. Glug, glug, glug.

Last night I took a tall, half-empty mug of Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile Tea with me to bed instead of water. I figured I had slept through the thud. I sleepily pictured tea all over the floor.

More water sounds.

"Molly!"
I fumbled around for my itty bitty flashlight and pointed it toward the mug. Still upright. No Doodle. Splish-splash! Splish-splash! I leaned over and peered into the mug. A half-submerged mouse stared up at me. Oh brother.
I grabbed the mug, cupped one hand over the top so the mouse couldn't leap out, and padded to the front door, all the while thinking that I really should deposit the mouse very far from the house. I opened the front door, stepped onto the cement stoop, and dumped out the mug.
You'd think with seven cats around, a mouse wouldn't stand a chance here. And it doesn't--as long as it's outdoors. The outside cats regularly catch mice and voles and birds and lizards and giant scary moths. I once looked out onto the covered porch off the kitchen and saw Patchy Cat sitting there with a huge packrat tail hanging out of his mouth. In two seconds he had slurped it up like a piece of spaghetti. The inside cats catch naps.

I filled up a fresh glass with water and stumbled back to bed. Never a dull moment. At least I learned that you can catch more mice with honey. . .

10 comments:

  1. OMG!!!
    Kinda cute, kinda icky.
    We had a rat marauding the patio tomato plants -- I knew it was a rat, because it would clip off leaves and stash them in a pile over to the side. Hoardin' MoFos, right?
    Big trap. Snap. Pity.
    I am presently blogging my own tea story.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha - that's a very cute story. And a very typical one. Although my cats only have toy mice - they do like bathing them. I knew one cat - not my own, thankfully - who liked to give her mice baths in the shower drain, and then, to warm them up, she'd drop them in her owner's coffee cup. Niiiice kitty.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My cat was also drinking my water in the middle of the night, so I would take a swallow and it tasted like cat. Then I started to bring my water in a glass bottle, with a screw top lid - no more cat water!
    One of the mice in the painting studio where I work met a its death in a bucket of paint. Not so nice! I don't think I would have loved finding a mouse in my tea.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Susan,
    I love this story...And Molly what a sweet little cutie. I am going to be working on some cat paintings in the near future. I may ask you if I can use some of your beauties as models. I just saw Patch cat...wow he is gorgeous too.

    Leigh

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOL!

    That is an awesome yet gross story!

    Kiri would love to catch a mouse, or a bird even more! mmeerrroooowwww

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great story and pix of Molly. What is it about cats and glasses of water? If I leave a glass or mug out, my cat will zoom straight for it and try and stick her whole head to drink just a bit from it. In fact, I caught a pix of her doing that a few weeks back.
    Hmmm, maybe I should put that up for my weekend cat pix.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ack! What is it with these comment pages? I type, type, type, push "preview" and poof! everything disappears! Will try this again. . .

    I love reading everybody's cat and mouse stories. Mice sure are getting dunked in a lot of things! Gosh, I didn't even consider the "ick factor" when I wrote this. I guess after so many years on a farm it takes a lot more than a mouse in my tea to gross me out. Maybe that's a bad sign. : )

    And the story did have a happy ending. Now if I'd found a drowned mouse the next morning--well, you wouldn't have heard about it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anne,
    Hmmmm. . . so are you saying you think somebody dropped the mouse in the mug? An interesting thought. . . I'm glad that coffee dunking cat isn't mine, either! : )

    Wendy,
    Great idea! Unless Molly knocks the bottle to the ground and rolls it around on the floor. Lots of noise in the middle of the night--she'd love it!

    Leigh,
    So glad you liked the story. My cats as models? Wow. I'm sure we can work something out. Just don't tell Joe--he'd have The Doodle Monster packed in a Fed Ex box and headed to Washington before you could say meow. She looks sweet. . . : )

    Clare,
    Maybe you can get Kiri one of those 25-foot extend-a-leashes for hunting expeditions. : )

    Amy,
    That's pretty funny.

    Boo,
    Yes, definitely post that picture!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love that picture of Molly. She's quite the scamp, huh? My cats are indoor-only, but I think they transfer their mouse-killing instincts to their catnip toys. Every night, one of my cats brings up a toy and drops it directly outside our bedroom door-like a gift. I think they must think that they're mice!

    ReplyDelete
  10. love the story! and i should link to you for thursday because we do a "bringing pet to blog day" on thursdays and you did! seems like with all of your animals you're always bringing them to blog but it's fun stuff all of the time anyway...
    :) mav

    ReplyDelete

December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!

Please note that I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be a while before yours appears.

I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your e-visits to our farm!