The Cat and the Mouse

It is quiet here in the country and we can, as one says, hear a pin drop. In fact, it is so quiet here that when we have a mouse or two in the attic, we can hear them running along the sheetrock of the ceiling. The mice can run on the sheetrock because the insulation is on the underside of the roof, so the sheetrock is bare
A few years ago, we had a big mouse problem in the attic---they seemed to have a whole extended family up there and making more each day, way beyond my rate of trapping them. But then they were gone, just as abruptly as they arrived.
Now, we have some back again.
We were sitting here one evening about a month ago when we heard a sound like "plop" and then nothing more.
A little later we were looking for THE CAT and found her sitting and watching the area under the convertible sofa in he library. So intent was she that she would not take her eye off the space under the sofa for a second.
Since we did not understand what was going on, we were surprised to see a mouse dash out from under the sofa and head out the door to the hallway, CAT right on the heels of the mouse---giving it a slap to send it rolling in the hallway. Then both sat and looked at each other- until the mouse moved and the cat was again right onto the chase.
This went on for a long time with no ill effects to either the cat or the mouse. But, each time the mouse found a safe spot it would stay put for awhile and then dash out heading for some other safe spot with cat in the chase-swatting the mouse to send it sprawling. We were amused.
After about a hour of this fun, and seemingly fun for the CAT and maybe not so much fun for the mouse, we had to call off the play. So we swept the mouse into a box and dumped it outside to see it scurrying off to the weeds---saying back over its shoulder that it would be back to play someday.
It took two weeks before the CAT stopped looking and smelling in the areas where she had last seen the mouse, but it was not there to provide any more cat and mouse playtime.

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