Did I Just Save A Life ?

The door opens.  I hear arguments.  Off in the distance, someone is whining.  Another voice seems to be singing.  In the kitchen are the sounds of the dishwasher being unloaded.  From the looks of it, there is a spill-over around the stove, involving whatever is for dinner.

(Sigh)

I think: "Sounds and looks like it has been a DAY here at the old homestead."

After a little while I am finally able to fix my plate for dinner.  Two of the five older kids are already finished with their meals.  I reach into the fridge to get the chocolate sauce and milk.  Oh sweet joy and saving grace of chocolate milk!  How I long to taste of thy sweetness!  Just a short while and we can be together at last.

Then, the unthinkable happens.

Ben, my 9-year-old, says, in between his final bites of food

"Hey Dad, did you know we have a mouse?"

SonOfA ...

Now my whole meal is ruined and the chocolate milk will be no salvation from the woes of homeownership combined with a housefull of kids and on and on and on.

As the story unfolds I find out that "our mouse" is in window well (the one that is usually flooded).  Ralph S. Mouse has been spending the day climbing in between the screen and the window.  He has also tried, in vain, to leap from the one big rock (about the size of a cantaloupe) that is in the well and out to safety.  For reference, the window well has got to be at least 4 feet deep, maybe five.  Poor Stuart Little.

Karen doesn't want to have to kill Jerry, but that sucker's not coming in our house!  So I, being the amazing husband and conservationist that I am, determine that we can provide Remy with a ramp to climb out of the window well.  But I worry that if he was stupid enough to think he could jump out from a rock that maybe there is no bridge or ladder that will work.

I taped together two six-foot shelf brackets (because one might have been a little too small for Mickey to navigate all the way out of the dungeon).  I took this contraption outside and lowered it into the cavernous opening.  The not-so Mighty Mouse took cover behind the rock and I feared he might never attempt the stairway to heaven on earth.

So I walked away.  The kids returned to their movie.  Karen and I soon resumed our conversation about her pool board meeting, etc.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

My 9-year-old, Ben, comes bounding upstairs!

"Come quick!  He's climbing it!  He's gonna make it!"

I do not get up.  Karen rushes to enjoy the victory.  From the basement I hear cheers, shortly followed by mommy's admonition to "Quiet down or he might fall."  Then all of a sudden ...

SUCCESS !!!

Danger Mouse has done it again!  He has escaped the clutches of the evil Greenback.  Everyone is so happy!

But I just had a thought ... I hope he wasn't just heading out for pizza!  Maybe he was bringing something back for Minnie.  You know how they love their cheese.

...