A Mouse In The Kitchen

We had a bird in our garage.
It flew in to get out of the cold.
The problem with birds in garages is getting them out.
They tend to find buckets or fertilizer spreaders and set up housekeeping.

We have had a bird in our house.
The tiny birds loved to perch on my evergreen Christmas wreath.
When the doorbell rang one night and we answered, the bird flew inside.
We spent hours that evening closing off rooms and getting the bird to fly out of the house.

I remember when my husband was studying for his MBA degree.
I had two babies at the time and he went out two nights a week to go to school.
He would come home from work, change, eat dinner, and then go to class.
When I put the girls to bed, I had some time to read until he came home.

Except for one night that I remember so vividly.
I was cleaning up after dinner and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.
At first I thought I was seeing things, but then I saw it again.
It was over in the corner of the kitchen under the high chair.

I was never close to a mouse before and cringed at the thought of one in my house.
However, I knew, without a doubt, I saw a mouse.
I was a woman on a mission.
Mousetraps intimidated me; I always feared they would close on my finger.

I had to be more creative.
The mouse went under a cabinet, in a space that was almost nonexistent.
If the mouse went in there, it would have to come out again.

I grabbed a small trashcan I had in my laundry room, which had a plastic bag inside.
I got myself up on a chair and worked from there.
I tilted the trashcan on the floor with the opening toward the cabinet.
I waited.

The mouse came out and scurried around the trashcan.
It was like the Keystone Cops all evening: the mouse and I trying to outsmart each other.
I felt like Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.
I was bound and determined to catch that mouse before my husband came home.

I put a piece of cheese near the cabinet and tilted the trashcan again.
The mouse was so fast; he came out, ate the cheese, and went back in.
It was incredibly infuriating.
I was going to catch him if it was the last thing I did!

I put the cheese a bit further away so the mouse had to venture out to get it.
The tilted trashcan was moved to a new position.
The mouse ventured out without being seen, ate the cheese, and retreated.
Finally, I decided to try one more time; if unsuccessful, my husband could deal with him.

This time I put the cheese in the trashcan, just a little bit.
I was still crouched on the chair and saw the mouse come out.
He tentatively approached the trashcan and went in to get the cheese.
In one fell swoop, I tilted the trashcan upright; with the mouse inside.

I did the Kevin McCallister move from Home Alone.
I was so proud of myself; catching a mouse without killing it.
I realized that almost two hours had gone by in my determination to outsmart a mouse.
Who really outsmarted whom?

I kept the trashcan far away from my body and opened the back door.
I put the trashcan on the deck knowing my husband would be home any minute.
The mouse was still in the trashcan when my husband looked inside.

He’s so cute. Come and see!
I think my husband could tell by my face that I had enough of mice.
He put the mouse in the woods.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female, He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
(Genesis 1:26-28)

The man and woman were to exercise dominion over the whole earth.
They were to have responsible stewardship over all God had made.

In actuality, I was simply exercising dominion over the mouse in my kitchen.
It wasn’t a matter of who won that night.

It was a matter of obeying the order God established.
Always obeying His perfect order; in all things.