Two days ago, we discovered that *something* had been chewing through packages in our family pantry. The list of potential culprits was rather short. The title of this post and initial image probably gave away the result of our investigation. Today, while cleaning up the mess from chewed-through bags of beans, rice, dried fruit, and other goods, we found a mouse.

![mouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/%D0%9C%D1%8B%D1%88%D1%8C_2.jpg/1280px-%D0%9C%D1%8B%D1%88%D1%8C_2.jpg)
*It looked like a typical house mouse. Image credit: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse)*

Not just its droppings and urine, which were also in disgusting abundance, but the culprit itself! Well, what do we do around here to rodent bandits who raid our food supplies? We sic cats on them!

![cat](http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh141/lordtothe/20170211_120323_zpsbpexpqrg.jpg)
*A [week-old photo](https://steemit.com/photography/@jacobtothe/snow-in-the-country) of the first cat close to hand. Image credit: me.*

This yellow fellow found himself suddenly grabbed and tossed on the top shelf in the pantry. His bewilderment faded rapidly as the scurrying sounds caught his ears, and a scurrying form caught his eye. He pounced and caught the mouse by the tail. But what now? He didn't want any stupid humans interfering with his prey, so he didn't want us to lift him down, but neither did he want to leap the roughly 7 feet/2 meters to the floor either. He stood there with the mouse dangling from his mouth, emitting a territorial growl that wasn't aggressive, but indicated he wasn't open to help either.

Eventually, I was able to pick him up despite his protests, but he in turn lost his hold on the mouse. It conveniently fell between two gallon jugs of vinegar that were on the floor up against the wall, and it thus had no escape route. I donned some leather gloves to try to grab it and lead the cat outside, but the mouse had more of a grip on my glove with its teeth than I had on it. When the mouse released the finger of the glove, I lost what little grip I had on the mouse, and it ran beneath some storage buckets on the opposite side of the room.

Yellow cat was fascinated with our efforts to remove these buckets so he could get the mouse underneath. Once the mouse's hideout was uncovered, the cat again pounced. Again, he quickly caught the mouse, but now it was PLAYTIME! I had to intervene before he let it sneak out of reach again, and grabbed it to take outside.

He followed with a distinct unwavering interest, and when the mouse was tossed into the yard, he for the third time attacked with glee. Here there was ample room for him to stalk, ambush, chase, and eventually kill without interruption!

At this point, I imagine some readers are disgusted by this human-assisted feline [MurderDeathKill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_Man_(film)) of a poor innocent mouse. Remember that this rodent had destroyed our food. He was a trespasser, vandal, and thief who spread filth and disease. His kind in more desperate times could cause us to starve, and he had  no right to our food and shelter. Innocent prankster Jerry he was not. 

Alas, no pictures of these events are available. We were busy with the occasion, and had no time to run for cameras or smartphones. And now, we return to cleanup efforts. Still no running water, so we must boil kettles on the stove to have suitable cleaning power. I must now sign off and go back to work cleaning up the mess that little fuzzy bastard of a food-destroying poop-and-piss machine left behind.