Living out in the country, I fully expect to see bugs and spiders in our house. I’m forever turning a corner and finding a spider crawling somewhere – that said, I should just keep a Kleenex in my hand at all times for just the occasion! I wasn’t even surprised the day I found a small garter snake on the tile by the front door (there IS a big gap between the doors that makes a wonderful entrance for snakes).

I’d say of all the creepy crawlies, the spiders bother me the most.

But in the past two weeks, we’ve caught three mice and one 4T boys sock. With the disappearance of black kitty, the mice have found their way into the warmer climate. We put sticky mouse traps by the back door since we had our suspicions they were coming in through the garage and within minutes, had already caught two. The next week, our son decided to see just how sticky the traps were and we caught his new sock. He was so distraught when I had to toss it in the trash, but my mom’s “never fail stain removal list” doesn’t include sticky mouse trap glue.

So I went on a kitten-finding mission and thanks to a good friend, now have two new cats. I hope they’re mouse-hunters. This is Chip, short for Chipmunk because my niece thought from the back he looked like a chipmunk. The other is Earmuffs because she’s all white and then just has color on her ears.

Much as I love cats, I have created a new problem though – their favorite pastime is climbing the sliding glass door screen. It’s still better than having mice in the house.

Until we walk again …