Coco Hurlburt, Mouse Slayer

Coco's finally getting some respect around here! AND dog treats!

Yesterday morning, after a weekend away in Rhinelander, I realized that Coco had a little critter cornered in our home office. She was crouched down low, growling and staring intently at something behind Jon's file cabinet.

She stayed like that for at least an hour, tenaciously waiting. She was "in it" for the long haul. Sometimes she'd dash to one side of the file cabinet, then jump back over to the other side. All she needed was one mistake.

I didn't stay to watch the "action"; I figured whatever was hiding back there would probably stay hidden until Coco went outside, then make its escape to parts of the house where we don't allow Coco. I was 99% sure it was a mouse, but there was no way I was going to move the heavy file cabinet to find out.

But after awhile, I observed a calm, disinterested Coco saunter to the door, waiting to be let out. I let her out and walked (with trepidation) back to the office. What would I find there? Would it be dead, mangled, or twitching?

Happily, it was just a little mouse, dead. Not mangled or twitching-- Coco had been merciful on both me and the mouse and made a clean, quick job of it. I worked up my courage and used a broom and dustpan to remove the little body.

To be honest, evidence of (another) mouse in our house does not come as much of a surprise. We were aware we had a mouse situation brewing in Colfax.

As a matter of fact, last weekend, while Jon was here for four days, we'd set out traps. It didn't take long for us to start catching mice. What surprised me was when the trap set up in our kitchen cupboard started snapping during the day, while we were in the very next room. Apparently they were pretty comfortable around us.

Of course, as their death toll mounted, I became excited about the sheer blog-ability of our great mice adventure.

I wouldn't normally describe Jon as the more "tactful" of the two of us-- but this time he was. I think anyone who has spent any amount of time with him knows how blunt and plain-spoken Jon usually is, and how quiet and diplomatic I usually am.

This time he was of the opinion that I should... consider other story lines. He pointed out that a big mouse extermination headline on the blog might give our future house guests pause.

Well, I deferred to his discretion last week, but this week the sheer blog-ability of "Coco Hurlburt, Mouse Slayer" wins out. Coco, I will not deprive you of your moment in the sun.

In other news, Leila Hurlburt likes sitting on her own better than sitting in her baby seat. She still needs ample pillows around her, to catch her falls, but she's working those back muscles more than ever.

Today her and I went to the kids' Veteran's Day program at school. I don't have any good photos from that; they were too far away, and I didn't even see Emma. The youngest kids singing were the 4th graders, and then the spotlight was given to the older middle school and high school kids.

From what I can gather, Colfax has a strong music program. I'm impressed with how theatrical and expressive the performances are, and the number of kids willing to do solos (and most sing well!). I think this will be something Emma will get into, as she gets older. Our car rides are always filled with her earnest renditions of "You Are My Sunshine"-- and she's already performed solo in karaoke (you may recall Brittany's graduation party).

As I mentioned earlier, the kids and I went to Rhinelander this past weekend. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from that. Jon worked through the weekend, as he is in Fargo, North Dakota now, and they missed some work last week due to rain.

Well, this blog is going to be a short one, due to lack of photos. Hope everyone is well! See (some of you!) at Thanksgiving!!