the mouse

We had a mouse in our house.  Ming borrowed a catch and release trap from our friend C.  He put these nasty cheese crackers in as bait.

Then the mouse seemed to disappear.  We thought it left.

But then Ming heard a scratching sound at night, and it was coming from near the trap.  We thought maybe there was a mouse in the trap.

"If there's a mouse in that trap, it's been there for a long time, living on those crackers.  The mouse trap is probably filled with mouse poop," I said.

So Ming decided it was time to deal with the mouse trap.  He put on work gloves and took it outside and looked through the holes.  No mouse.  He went to the trash can to dump out the crackers, and a mouse ran out.

The mouse ran right by a cat.  (We have lots of cats.)  The cat chased it.  The mouse hid behind a box.  Ming moved the box, and the mouse ran toward the cat.  The cat pounced on it.

Later Ming saw the cat.  It didn't have the mouse.  "Do you think the mouse got away?" I asked.

We don't understand why the mouse scratched at the trap only at night.  "If I was in a box, I'd be scratching at it all the time," Ming said.

"Me too," I said.