The Mouse Drop

A chapter from The Booger Cat Chronicles

This took place at some point in the first year of living in Kentucky after marriage. We’d hauled both Rocky and Scarlet with us from Georgia all the way to Paducah, Kentucky. They’d adjusted fairly well. Except for the Wine Glass Incident (but that’s a different story).

One day, we noticed the cats seemed very fascinated with the fridge and oven. The fascination alternated: sometimes they’d stare at the underside of the fridge, sometimes it would be the underside of the oven. 

“I think there’s a mouse,” said James. “Why else would they be stalking the oven or fridge?”

An image pulled from The 2010 Archives of the cats in the kitchen (but not staring at the fridge). Rocky refuses to look at the camera as Scarlet gives a vague acknowledgement.

We didn’t confirm this mouse suspicion until one day, while in the kitchen, the critter was bold and ran from under the fridge to under the oven when Rocky was looking the other way. I saw it though. 

“THERE IT IS!” (I’m pretty sure I pointed dramatically or yelled, or possibly both)

James started to pull the oven away from the cabinets. As he tugged, the mouse bolted toward the back room that held laundry machines and the back entry door. Rocky darted after the mouse quickly. He lunged and nabbed the mouse in a smooth motion. 

“Rocky! Good kitty! Hooray! Good job!” We layered on the praise happily and loudly. 

This was foolish, you see – this is a tactic that works best with dogs. With Rocky, being the cat that he is, this backfired horribly. Rocky’s eyes widened, mouse in his mouth, frozen in mid-motion from his previous lunge. James and I realized quickly what was bound to happen. Everything was in slow-motion as Rocky turned and bolted back to the interior part of the house in which we definitely did not want a mouse to be dropped.

So, of course, as soon as Rocky slid through the kitchen and into the den, he dropped the mouse. 

Panic ensued. James quickly reached the other rooms in the house and slammed the doors shut to contain the mouse. I grabbed a Swiffer. Our other cat Scarlet, who had been absent from the kitchen excitement, suddenly turned into a legendary hunter. She was suddenly chasing the mouse all around the room at top speed.

Rocky, meanwhile, had lost interest in the chase. (All the more reason to revoke those good praises we’d heaped onto him.)

The rest of the chase was a blur as Scarlet had narrow miss after narrow miss in her attempts at catching the mouse. At some point, James lifted up our small couch by one end when the mouse darted under it. Scarlet dove after, and the resulting chaos of her going in a circle after the mouse around and around the lifted couch for almost a solid minute resembled a Saturday-morning cartoon. 

The opening appeared when Scarlet had cornered the mouse toward the front window. The mouse pivoted toward me and my Swiffer. Instinct kicked in and I shoved the Swiffer onto the entire mouse. I slowly lifted the Swiffer back up, expecting a complete pancake (perhaps I watch too many cartoons?). Instead it was just the unmoving mouse body. Scarlet sniffed it, offended I had taken her job, and wandered off.

A few days later, James drew an exact portrait of what Rocky looked like seconds before he bolted from the room while carrying the mouse. This picture has lived on multiple fridges and traveled state lines. Though faded and aged, it is a testament to the time that Rocky almost fulfilled his cat responsibilities.

The faded pen drawing created by James of a wide-eyed Rocky holding the mouse moments before dropping it. This piece of art is currently on a locker in the fun side of the basement.

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Note: This is one of several varying chapters I’m working on for a collection of stories about Rocky the cat. The working title is “The Booger Cat Chronicles” but that would maybe change whenever I have enough for a full printed/digital book collection? Maybe, maybe not.

A more recent image of our mouse-dropping hero, circa 2024.