Shady Loki and the Mouse

Loki has many friends and some respected alpha dogs and a few punching bags.  But like any true villain hero, he has a nemesis.  Specifically, there is a mouse that lives in the tree in his yard that is the bane of his existence.

It's a little mouse.  We've seen it, Krispy and I, a little scurrying blob cloaked in the darkness of the night, seen the tiny glint of its eyes when a timely flashlight spots it.  Sometimes it hops onto the roof of the house to do who knows what, though Loki is convinced it is up to mischief and there's only room for one God of Mischief in his territory.

The second Loki hears anything treeward, he goes tearing off rawring and snarling and growling and barking and bristling.  He rises up and balances on his hind legs, and will try to climb up the tree or the wall or anything nearby the better to get at that villainous little mouse.  Then he'll go charging back and forth along the wall, barking and growling and browling and garking, and charge around all the rest of the yard to make sure that the rest of the yard knows he's not slacking on guard-duty, and then return to glower up at the mouse hidden among the branches, frustratingly far out of reach.  He'll also sniff around the base of the tree and investigate the area between trashcans.

If I sniff around here often enough, the mouse might magically appear!

I'm just like, "Loki, if you bark at the mouse, it's not going to come down.  What has the mouse ever done to you?"

And Loki, he whirls around with his hackles raised and he says to me, he says, "That mouse is a little bastard!  It's ruining my life, and yours, and everyone's!  It's a demon from hell hell-bent on destroying everything in this world that's good!  You couldn't possibly understand or else you'd help me catch that evil awful horrible terrible thing!"

All this week, Loki has been barking at the mouse.  We can hear it nibbling away on something.  It's quite a familiar tune to my ears since it's the same sound as when my rats are eating something, a sort of quiet studious gnawing.  It drives Loki insane.

Damn you, mouse! Damn you to wherever mice are damned!
Even my demoneyes aren't powerful enough to
laser you into submission!

I gave him a bone the other day that was stuffed with some kind of disgustingly gelatinous pale chicken mass.  It looked blech and it smelled gross and Loki loved it.  For the rest of the night, he was content to chew upon his new bone.

Mouse? What mouse?

And the next night, it was back to barking at the mouse in the tree.  I give him points for persistence.

He's gonna be a happy boy pretty soon because his favorite people are coming back and he won't be stuck with me anymore.  Krispy and her Sister have been having a blast abroad.  I've no doubt there will be picture-laden posts coming in the near future!  In the meantime, WELCOME BACK, KRISPY~!