A Mouse In My Husband's Pocket!!

On our little farm in northwestern Montana, most days are quiet and calm. Sure we have the typical dog chase cat, cat stalk chicken, goat head butt goat adventures, but all in all, on any given day, life on the farm is quite serene.

One of the first things I learned as a farmer, is that roosters don't just crow at daylight, they crow throughout the day and evening hours! We currently have two handsome roosters, who each believe they rule the roost. Fabio and Mr. Dennis strut their stuff and watch over the entire flock with great pride and diligence! Fabio the elder of the two, makes certain Mr. D knows his place and keeps him in it, if he dare wander beyond his bounds!

Another thing I learned, is no matter how diligent you are to keep rodents at bay, it is nearly impossible to be rid of them completely!!! Field mice, like rabbits are prolific with the average gestation period being a mere 20 days!!! Although mice may live up to two and a half years in captivity, the average mouse in the wild lives only about four months. But, there are always new babies on the heels of those that die by various means, whether it be natural causes or by predators.

We have six cats, two of whom are avid mousers!!! You can see them nearly 24-7 stalking these fast little critters. Trooper our 'head mouser', takes great pride in his captives and freely tosses them to and fro until he strikes his final blow upon them. I still cannot watch any part of this natural dance other than the initial capture; I know what happens, and deep down I am glad it does, or we would be inundated with thousands of mice on our property!

Not too long ago, Dave and I were out in the barnyard, raking up old straw to be recycled. It was one of the first warm days of spring and all the critters were happily frolicking about as we worked overturning much of the wet hay, the aftermath of all the melted snow. Beneath the critters appetites were happily satisfied as the bugs and worms surfaced after a long winters nap!

Dave usually wears bib overalls, something I never thought I would see from the hot rod building, city boy! He loves our farm and our new laid back lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, it's hard work, some days from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. we work the farm in one way or another. And critters like being fed on schedule, so if you slip up for some reason on a given day, they will surely let you know!!! But, this kind of work is different and most days the rewards out weigh the hard work!

My typical garb on any given day is old jeans, sweat shirt and a pair of my rain boots (see my other hub on rain boots :-). I always, always tuck my pants into my boots and here's why:

On that day not too long ago, we raked and shoveled away at the old straw, packed down from the cold and ice of a long, hard winter. As we unearthed the wet, mush the critters all gathered around and helped to eat the bugs and worms. While we moved about, picking up debris along the way, all of a sudden something came "flying" out of the mushy muck! Whatever it was darted so fast we could not focus quick enough to see what it was!!

Trooper right at our side, darted forward at one of the moving projectiles and caught it between his sharp claws! Once in the grasp of his two feet, we squatted to see and found it to be a field mouse! Because there had been so many flying about, it was hard to see they were just little, very tiny, field mice!! Cute as can be, but nothing we want around our little farm!

Mice can at times be harmful rodents, damaging and eating crops and spreading diseases through their parasites and feces. In western North America, breathing dust that has come in contact with mouse feces has been linked to the deadly hantavirus.

Dave continued to watch Trooper toss about several of the cute little mice, and narrated for me the details blow by blow. I told him I would rather not know, so he stopped and just watched in silence. After a few moments, I saw Dave began to dance about and squirm with, what looked like, a little discomfort!!

Now Dave is a very mellow fellow and rarely in all the years of our marriage has he ever raised his voice! Well, this was one of those times when his voice hit decibel levels higher than a squealing cat in heat!!

I knew immediately something was wrong, but had not a clue what it could be!! He yelled, "There's a mouse in my pants, there's a mouse in my pants!!!", as he jumped about trying to dislodge it! Finally after a moment, that he said later, seemed much, much longer, the little fellow detached his sharp little claws from Dave's inner thigh, fell to the ground and fled for safety somewhere in the barn!

Dave stood in disbelief, heart racing, short of breath and asked if I saw the big mouse that ran up his pant leg??? I knew at that moment, his 'giant sized' friend would be the jest of his conversation for days and months to come, so I agreed I had seen this GIANT rodent as it ran for safety!!

Later that evening, the story was told again and again. Dave has been a mechanic for 30 years and keeps his nuts, bolts, screws in his pockets. All the items he believes he will absolutely need on any given days, he shoves inside his deep, full pockets. Doing so, usually means there are holes inside at least some of these worn out pockets. On this particular day, there was a hole, one big enough for a "giant" mouse to run up his leg and escape through that hole of safety!

Because he does not tuck his pants into his boots like I do, that little, I mean BIG mouse, was able to enter from below, crawl up his leg and found that big escape hole all within a matter of moments, even though it seemed longer!

That is precisely why I always tuck my pant legs inside my boots! I never want to experience the closeness of a mouse like he did that day, although until that day, I never really though it would happen!!

Now Trooper works double duty, day and night mousing for us, as he shows his new trainees, "Twitch and Ajax" the ropes!!! And, NOW Dave tucks his pants, inside his boots!!