Wednesday night I needed to put gas in my SUV. I collected up the trash because Thursday is trash pick-up day and John had already run out to put he trash receptacle at the end of the driveway, but he hadn't emptied the wastebaskets in the house. So, Kelly takes the trash bag and heads down the driveway. I get into my car, get out the money for the gas, put on my sunglasses, adjust the air conditioning, adjust the mirror, pick music to listen to...then start the car and begin to back out of the yard. I can see Kelly standing beside the mailbox at the end of the driveway waiting for me to pick her up. I back out into the street and begin to pull forward to where she is standing and suddenly she is looking at the grill of the car. I'm thinking, with horror, that I hit a bird that's flown in front of the car, as birds are prone to do, and it's jammed into the grill. Then she motions for me to stop, so I do, and she's standing there, chin in her hand, just looking at the front of the car. Okay...Next, she motions for me to get out, so I do, and I start to come around the front of the car. I am more or less in the middle of the street, but luckily the neighborhood is quiet, so there are no other cars at the time. I get to the front driver' side corner and I'm looking at the grill and I don;t see anything, but I do see movement undert the car. It is the butt end of a mouse hauling ass toward the front lawn. Okay. "A mouse," I say. "Two," she replies. Then, "Look at the license plate." I look at the license plate and there is Mouse #2 clinging for dear life to the frame around the license plate, the bottom of it. It's trembling and terrified. Poor thing- wehat a heck of a ride that would have been clinging to that narrow frame all the way to the Hess station! She goes, "I'm not touching it, but he needs to be prodded to jump down." I reply, "I have the squeeqee behind my seat, it has a long enough handle. I'll just poke him in the butt with that." She I go to get it, and as I open the door and reach for it she calls, "He jumped! He's down and running to the front lawn!" Yeah! Mouse 2 has joined Mouse 1 in the lawn, safe and sound. I crouched down and peer into the grill to make sure there are no other stowaways. I didn;t see any, so we jump into the car and drive off.
Needless to say, I now slap the hood with the flat of my hand, tell them to move along if they've taken up occupancy in the grill before I get into the car every morning, then once I am in the car, I toot the horn twice, just to let them know the ship is sailing and they'd better bail if they want to stay in the neighborhood, or else they're going for a ride!
John did open the hood before we ran errands this morning and we both checked over the engine compartment and saw no sign of a nest in there anywhere. The front grill of the 2012 Rav-4 has a cozy place for mice to call home, if they can get in there- maybe by climbing the tires? I don't know...
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