Creatures that Stirred

We had three unexpected visitors this holiday season.

Coco, our resident goofball cat (even more than most) had spent a number of evenings in the kitchen staring at our range. To know Coco is to know that she will often do odd things, such as stare at an inanimate object for hours. So, we weren't terribly alarmed by this.

But eventually, we started to figure something tangible might be capturing her attention. I spied under the range to find evidence of critters. A few days later, I set a no-kill trap, and within hours we had our first mouse.

Upstairs into a spare terrarium tank he went.

The trap was reset, and within hours, we had a second captive.

For a brief moment, it became less cute when we caught a third.

The third capture appears to be the full collection of the population. For three nights, I set a camera to capture the rodents every ten or fifteen minutes. At some point they must have learned the noise of the powering flash and stared at the camera for straight-on profiles.

Today, a rather warm New Years day, I set the critters free in a wooded area. I've already had to stop myself from visiting them in the now-empty tank three times. While I'm sure they miss the morning presentation of peanut butter, hopefully they are doing well outdoors.