As I am sitting in the big blue chair facing the tv I see him run like a bullet across the base molding underneath the bar and behind what is our game cabinet, behind which he has no way to escape. Without taking my eyes off the game cabinet I pause my movie and text Jeremy that he is cornered. Jeremy was in the office at the time and I didn't want to scare the mouse by yelling for Jeremy. At first we don't know what to do. Jeremy grabs a flashlight and one of his bow staffs from taekwondo and begins to slowly pry the game cabinet away from the wall. But all at once the mouse jumps for it and runs into the living room and underneath our sofa. So I came up with a plan: I found a small clear Rubbermaid tub and decided that as Jeremy either moved the couch or swiped with the staff underneath it that I would pounce on the mouse with the tub the second it tried to run.
So of course what happened? It was like the plot from Mousehunt. Every single time we thought we were ready for him and Jeremy would move the furniture the mouse would run in the opposite way from where I was and go hide underneath another piece of furniture in the living room. So one by one we would move each piece of furniture out of the living room and into the dining room once we knew he wasn't underneath it. finally the only place he could hide was under the big blue chair. Unfortunately through out this whole process my dog Leela was not a big help because she thought of the mouse as a toy she had never seen before so she had no idea what to do with it, which meant she didn't come close to catching it. That's what I get for raising a dog as a pacifist. But luckily she did chase the mouse under the blue chair. We thought we had him cornered. The big blue chair is a recliner so we decided to switch roles and Jeremy would try catching him and I took the staff. I very slowly reclined the chair because then we could see underneath it. With the flashlight we couldn't see him so I took the staff and started jabbing and swiping under the chair but to no avail.
We were confounded. There was no way he got past us and even after we tried picking up and moving the chair to the dining room like everything else he had just vanished. We were disheartened thinking that he somehow got past all of us because there were no holes in the wall for him to get through. So I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and decide to clean the floor while we have all of the furniture moved out. When I was done we slowly start putting things back in the living room, first a bookshelf and then the big blue chair. Then all of our adrenaline came rushing back because as we sat down the big blue chair the mouse came running out from underneath it and he went under the book shelf. Somehow the mouse had clung for dear life under the chair as we had moved it to the dining room in the first place and I guess he never thought it was a good idea to run from the dining room into the kitchen where we know he had been getting into the wall.
Knowing we have him trapped this time we move the big blue chair back to the dining room and actually put obstacles in the mouse's way so that when Jeremy lifted up on the bookshelf the mouse would have no choice but to run into the open room instead of along the base board. Just in case it ran his way Jeremy grabbed a trashcan. So we are standing there and as ready as we could be Jeremy lifted up the bookshelf and sure enough the mouse first ran toward Jeremy. I love my husband so I got permission from him to tell you that it was I not him that got points for being the man of the house last night. As the mouse ran at Jeremy unexpectedly he jumped and screamed which sent the mouse running, like nothing I had ever seen, in my direction. Before I knew it I got him! Holding the Rubbermaid tub tightly on the floor my plan actually seemed to work! It took us a few minutes to figure out what to do next but we wound up taking a piece of clear plastic from the frame of a sketch of Gandalf and carefully sliding it underneath the tub. Jeremy proceeded to duck tape the tub to the piece of plastic while we discussed whether to kill the little guy or set him free.
In the end we did the humane thing and drove 2 miles away then set him free. This entire little battle took about 2 hours, so it unfortunately ended Jeremy's studying early last night. But I think it was an adrenaline rush and a laugh that we both needed so in the end it was totally worth it.
Your debacle was mercifully short! Our recent rat escapade was a bit more protracted -- and the outcome for our rodent not so favorable for him despite our best efforts!
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