If You Give a Mouse a Car...

There's all sorts of wildlife in the mountains, where I live is no exception. The other morning there was a spider the size of Sparta's face sitting happily in my sink. Later that same afternoon, I discovered a family of furry field mice in the trunk of my car!! There's no damage to the car, as far as I could tell, but they did do a number on my very warm red Iowa State sweatshirt (Dear Dad, if you are reading this... next time you go to Iowa, please bring back a new sweatshirt!!! No one makes a sweatshirt quite like Iowa).

Now, there are some stereotypical activities that couples go through that test their relationship:

• Moving
• Redecorating/hanging pictures
• Getting lost and trying to find a place where neither of them have been before
• Planning a trip
• Anything that deals with money and budgets

In each of these circumstances, the strength of a couples' communication skills and levels of patience are tested to the breaking point. In light of recent events, I'd like to add another scenario to the list:

• Removing (without poison bait or killing) live mice from the trunk of a Honda Accord

Yes, a few nights ago Stuart and I tested the strength of our relationship by trying to remove the mice (number still unknown) from my trunk. Let's just say... it didn't go very smoothly.

In the fading light of twilight, Stuart and I stood with hands on our hips in front of my trunk. Because of my belief of not killing a living creature, unless it has more than four legs, I stood on one side with a Tupperware dish waiting to plop it down over a furry mouse. Stuart did the heavy lifting.
First, we removed the plastic tray that extends across the majority of my trunk. In it, a football and some other trinkets rolled around, including a thin sketchpad that would later come in handy.
Then, we removed the bottom mat that covered the spare tire. It was then that we had the first victim in sight. A small gray mouse was bouncing around trying to escape and ended up burying itself under the tire. Stuart unscrewed the bolt that keeps the tire from moving and lifted the tire to where it balanced on one side. He then removed it to the grass, and we watched the horror that squeaked before us!
Stuart had unknowingly pinned the little mouse with the tire as he lifted it out of the trunk, and the mouse had been crushed. Its little furry body now twitched in a very familiar way that my guinea pig had done right before it croaked.
"OH MY GOSH, STUART!" I screeched. "IT'S DYING!"
"No, it can't be," Stuart answered.
"No, Stuart, it's definitely dying! Oh my gosh!! I can't believe you killed it! Why did you do that?" I cried, smacking him in the arm repeatedly.
"I didn't mean to!" 
A minute later, the twitched stopped. The mouse was dead. We both stared at it.
After much more accusation on my part, Stuart gingerly lifted the mouse by the tail and tossed it into the brush behind our trailer. The quest for the other mice continued.
"Don't kill them this time," I warned.
There are many small holes and crevices in a trunk, even with all the layers and the spare tire removed. In Stuart crawled into the back of my trunk with a flashlight to peer into the holes.
"Look! There's one! I can see its ear," he said. "Do you see it?"
"No!" I answered.
Out popped a smaller gray mouse, and I screamed... of course.
"Get it!! Trap it!" Stuart yelled, and I plopped the Tupperware dish over the mouse.
Now begins the part of communication. It is very difficult with my slightly distracted animal-loving brain, which wants to examine and "play" with the mouse, while Stuart's practical-thinking brain wants to immediately get rid of it. His impatience mixed with my distraction created a bad case of lack of communication. While Stuart tried to edge the thin sketchpad underneath the Tupperware, I tried to keep the mouse in as he tried to wriggle his way out, which is simple enough for him to do considering the bowl was perched on an uneven surface. We were doomed to fail from the beginning! With both of us trying to do it in the way we deem best, it wasn't long before baby mouse scrambled underneath the rim of his plastic prison, danced back and forth, then disappeared into a smaller hole than the one we had found him in.
It took a few minutes of tense feelings before we put the trunk back together and called it a night.
Stuart and Lex -1 (for accidentally killing one)
Mice - 1

Let the games continue...!!!!