Parade Of Critters

Once upon a time there was a lady who lived in a house with two cats and sometimes a mouse or two or three — depending on how lazy the cats were or however clever the mice became.
In a stove that was seldom used, (because most of it was broken), one of the mice made a home. The stove was removed to remove the mouse but the mouse jumped out without being seen and didn’t go out with the stove. It was captured later in a bin with a spinning pop-bottle wheel laced with peanut butter so that when the mouse crawled out to get the peanut butter off the wheel, the wheel spun and dropped him in the bin.
The mouse was transferred to a field to find his friends or to be eaten by a snake or another kind of mouse-eating critter. She didn’t want to do a dirty deed but she also didn’t want to have him running around, dribbling pee every where he went.
Mice pee as they run you know.
Bugs crawled in and bugs crawled out and sometimes snakes and lizards. There were lots of holes close to ground under doors where people entered too. Sometimes the bugs were tarantulas but most of the time the snakes were only kingsnakes coming in for warmth to hibernate under a chair or blanket.
Kingsnakes are good snakes because they love to eat rattlesnakes and mice — so, you don’t have to worry about being bitten by a kingsnake — but they can have a rattle.
The cats were good at telling the lady of the house where the mice, snakes, lizards and bugs were for the most part — but sometimes she had to find them on her own when lifting up a blanket or moving out a chair for cleaning. She would almost always scream and then the cats would know where she was and come to see the snake, lizard, bug or mouse.
“You’re fired!” the lady would tell the cats, “What good are you for hire?”
The cats were good for cuddling and keeping legs and feet warm in the middle of a cold night so they could stay and didn’t have to eat the dirty peeing mice or tell her where the snakes were if they didn’t want to but it was good if they would be so inclined.
Cats and mice, bugs and lizards, bees and flies and giant fury tarantulas — oh and snake and any other critter that seems to want to come in — it’s a revolving door it seems. The lady of the house could fit things to keep all things out but that would mean that air would have to stay out too. Sometimes seeping holes are good and sometimes a parade of critters is fairly entertaining.

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