Max caught a mouse!

Sunday night, Corinne and I were watching ALCS game 4 (Go Sox!). During a break, I was bringing in a few boxes to unpack, and during one of the trips Max managed to slip past me into the garage. He's always been very interested in the garage; whenever we open the door, he always seems to be right there, ready to run out. Once in a while, he'll get out, but since the outside door to the garage is closed, we're not concerned. In this instance, he was outside for a few minutes before he came back inside, and as he walked down the hallway towards the entertainment room, I noticed something strange. "What's that in his mouth?"

A mouse!¹

We were so shocked at the sight that neither of us reacted at first. When it finally sunk in that Max had caught a mouse¹ in the garage, we still didn't know if the mouse¹ was dead or alive. As far as we knew, he could drop it on the floor at any time and it could scurry around the room/house, bleeding and trailing internal organs behind him. When he did drop it, we quickly discovered that we had nothing to worry about - Max had apparently already "terminated" him. Cleanly, too - not even much bleeding.

"Quick, get the camera!" says Corinne. While I run off to grab out camera, Max continued to play with his catch as if it were a toy mouse (or perhaps that should really be the other way around?), batting it and tossing it into the air. I got a few quick shots, and brought in some paper towels both to help dispose of the creature and help give some contrast to the photos. :) In the process of getting the shot below, I almost ended up getting hit in the face with a dead mouse¹ carcass.


Max, with mouse¹ in mouth. He's about to toss it into the air (and almost hit me in the face)

We were such the proud parents! We felt bad taking it away from him, since he was having such a good time, but we really didn't want him to eat it and deal with the potential disease/worms issue. I wrapped the poor little dead thing in the towel and tossed it into the field. Maybe the neighbors cats will eat him.


Mouse¹, dead.

Max got some extra wet food and attention for that one. I guess we should let him go into the garage more often.

¹ Edit: Upon further review, it has been determined that the creature was not a mouse, but was in fact a vole. We apologize for any confusion we may have caused.

- Mike (& Corinne)