The Taming of the Shrew - or Not

Well, strap your sword on, check your holsters, pull out the mosquito net (I mean, butterfly net), and grab the nearest curtain rod! That's a picture of us hunting down the shrew.


Well, we thought it was a mouse. But were informed that Alaska does not have mice. Kinda like we don't have ticks, snakes, fireants, etc. What we do have are little critters called shrews that come in when the weather gets cold. :) We must have a nice warm cozy home complete with a mouse hole. Excuse me, shrew hole. I will take a picture of that tomorrow. Kids are sleeping right now and it's in their room. Actually we have several cute little holes, but this particular one housed a sweet little shrew until this morning.


Gabriella started yelling, "Mom, it's in the shoes!" Well, I did not have to ask what she was talking about. The children have talked of NOTHING else since yesterday. They even stayed up late talking about the shrew. Brennan felt sick on his stomach from thinking about it. He kept imagining the little shrew eating his toes, etc. Because, like a good father, Chris had convinced them that shrews will crawl under their covers and nibble on their toes. Thanks, Daddy!


Being the brave and fearless mother that I am, I found a broken curtain rod by the trash can and used it to move the shoes one by one. Hollaring for the boys to bring a shoe box, we discovered the little shrew escaping into Lulu's boot. I snatched up the boot, fingers shaking, and squeezed the top together, trying not to squish the rodent. Brennan zipped up the boot and we slammed the shoe box lid on the boot.


Now to fully appreciate the scene, you must realize our foyer is only about 4 ft by 4 ft. Everyone except the sleeping baby and working Daddy were huddled in there squealing and jumping!


We watched the shrew all day and released it away from our home tonight. We considered keeping it, but Chris said it would not live. I thought we could make shrew stew. And Rob wanted to skin it and make us a little shrew-skin rug. So we figured it was best off in the wild thicket behind our home.


Enjoy the little movie...