"I Told You So"

The following little incident took place about a month ago, but I totally forgot to blog about it. So here goes:

Recently we had a lot of mice taking over our house, and we finally decided to buy some traps instead of letting our cat catch them, only to let them go. We discovered this mice problem when I was getting some chocolate chips and walnuts out from my cabinet and found the bags with lots of little holes and bites in them! ICK! (Note: I then was inspired to completely clean out that bottom cabinet, get rid of any food that may have been touched by the mice, as well as anything that was expired - so it was sort of a good thing!) So we set the traps with some peanut butter and placed them safely under the kitchen cabinets where the dogs and cat could not get to them, of course. We always knew when a trap had caught a mouse because our [capable of drug-sniffing] dog would be sitting right in front of the spot with her nose pressed against the cabinet. Quite funny, actually.

So one morning when we came downstairs, we discovered Mia staring at the cabinet, and we knew there was another dead mouse. Scott got the trap out and sure enough, there was Mr. Mouse. So sad. Of course, Mia & Moxie were all excited and quite interested as Scott picked up the trap. Kirsten and I observed, and she was quite amused at all the commotion. Well, as Scott was getting ready to take care of the mouse, he wondered aloud what would happen if he held it up for Mia and Moxie to "look at." I said, "Well I think that Mia would just grab it - she's pretty quick." However, Scott chose not to heed this advice and instead attempted to show them the mouse. He held it slightly above their heads, and before you could say "boo", the mouse AND the trap were inside Mia's mouth! At this point, I think I said, "I told you so."

Scott then proceeded to attempt to get the mouse away from Mia. Let me tell you, when she has something in her mouth that she wants, she DOES NOT give it up easily. Other dogs, like Moxie, will let you push down on their lower jaw enough for you to remove the item. Or they will respond to a command such as "leave it." Not Mia. She is very adamant about holding on to things that she likes. The one way that we often get her to leave things alone is, oddly enough, by telling her to "sit." Somehow, that triggers an obedience nerve in her brain and she usually drops the item out of her mouth. I believe this is how Scott got the item from her, although I had to walk away in exasperation as Scott ate his words...

I only wish I would've had the video camera!