When I returned from work tonight, I opened the back door to let the girls out like usual. Since DD's passing the two other girls have been kind of quiet, but have still greatly enjoyed their outside time.

While the girls were playing outside I received a phone call from my brother. We talked for ten minutes or so, discussing the big fireworks show we're going to be firing out near LA this coming July 4th. I was a little bit distracted, though, by Amelia jumping from floor to box to shelf to box to floor and back as though she had found something very exciting to hunt - in the living room. I finished my phone call and went to look what she had found, but couldn't see anything.

A couple of minutes later Amelia started pounce-jumping on something next to my gear bag, sitting beside one of the cabinets. I got to up to see what she was playing with and found either a big mouse or a small gopher in my gear bag! Amelia had chased this gopher-mouse from the yard into the house, and was swatting at it with paws. She didn't know what else to do with it - she didn't want to bite it, and wasn't sure why it wasn't smashing like the moths do when she batted at them, so she just kept swatting it.

I got a water glass and scooped up the critter, took it out into the yard, and turned it loose in the weeds in the far corner. It scampered away into the neighbor's yard while Amelia called to it to come back and play some more.

I went in to read some more, and Amelia prowled the living room - around the boxes, and the shelves, and my gear bag - to see if any gopher-mouses had wandered into the living room. An hour later, she's still on the lookout for more furry play toys.

Copyright © Dan Mahoney
May 8, 2003