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the mouse


I have a mouse in my house. I don't know how he got inside as we live in a fairly new and relatively air-tight dwelling, but he is there. A friend who was over this weekend saw him scampering behind the stove while I was out on an errand. He bravely poked his head out again when I came home and I promptly grabbed the cats and instructed them to do their job. They chased him all over the kitchen and living room, and Tea laid a little siege when the mouse camped inside the tv cabinet, but all too soon the felines lost interest in the new toy that hid in spaces they could not reach. They soon retired to sleep and snore on the bed for the remainder of the night. A rather sad impersonation of cats, I must say.

This morning Tea was meowing for food for her fat belly and I thought perhaps I should refrain from feeding her so that she would be a little more interested in capturing the mouse, but I wasn't sure she would understand my strategy (much less embrace it), so I just tossed some food in her dish and went back to bed as it was still dark and way too early to get up. There is something very wrong with this picture - it is against nature.

There is a mouse in my heart. It is a timid and fearful creature who likes to hide and lead a merry chase on occasion. There is a roaring lion in my heart as well. Alas, she has become accustomed to being fed and living a comfortable life with little effort required on her part. She has become tame and slow and has little appetite for the hunt. She sees hunger as something to be avoided instead of relishing the quickening of all her senses and instincts in response to the desire and longing to capture something with her own energy and effort, to grasp it with her own claws and ingest something of substance.

I look at my life and my church and my culture and see too many mice running around unchallenged and too many fat cats sitting in comfy chairs. Where is the hunger? Where is the desire to eradicate all those pesky and illusive fears? Where is the drive to hunt down those things that are vital to life and growth? Why do we choose comfort over the chase? Awaken the lion in my heart, oh God!

This is Jazz striking a pose on the bedroom threshold.

NOTE: The mouse was caught in a live trap late Sunday night and released into the woods.

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Comments

Shelley said…
too funny. That happened to me once in my apt. in Stratford. My cat caught it though, and played with it, then let it free in my BEDROOM!!! I called Dale...lol.

This summer we had a stray kitty hanging about out here. He visited us regularly for some love and some food. He had no problem catching and eating mice...grossed us all out. He had fun with them, and then ate the whole thing, bones and all. Crunch crunch.

Hunger seems to be the only thing that works, I would say. For us and cats. Great post.
9:46 AM
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