We used to live in a small ground-floor apartment in China for about 3 years and we often had problems with rats under the floor. We could hear them especially at night and sometimes they sounded like a thundering herd and you could also hear them squealing like they were dying. And when one died, you knew it from the smell. We had many nights when we would wake up to the sound of those rats under the floor and I started keeping a broom by the bed to pound on the floor a few times to scare them away a bit.
One night, after I had been away for 3 days (and was to be gone for 3 night after that), my wife woke me up and said she had seen someone standing at the foot of our bed. I didn't see anyone, but she insisted that she had seen someone and seemed to assume that it was one of the night watchmen who had let himself in to look for rats. (Rats were automatically on her brain when she woke up at night.)
I tried to convince her there was nobody there, but she insisted she'd seen someone. I finally turned on the light and immediately saw a bit of black hair sticking up at the foot of the bed. Without a second's delay I dove on the intruder and gave him a good forearm smash. As I was wrestling with the guy, my wife said, "He's got a knife!" I wrenched his arms and he dropped the knife with about a 4-5" blade.
The wrestling match didn't last long and I spent most of the next hour sitting on top of this teenaged Chinese kid who kept begging for mercy. Unlike tonight's first mouse, I didn't show him any. But when the police came, they not only showed him no mercy, they showed him the back of their hand a few times.
See how I can turn the topic of mice and rats to a story about my heroism?
Great way to get you REALLY motivated to dislocate his wrist, elbow, shoulder, back, hip, knee, and ankle in one nicely turned twist. LOL!
Great story. And a good exercise for you. At least you and the wife know what your first response will be. LOL!
Trill hates it that she knows I will wade into a dog fight if I have a dog in the fight. ;>)
/john