Monday, November 9, 2009

A mouse in the house

In my house.... in my piano, to be precise. It seems that the rainy weather has driven a little hikmeeya into the house. Barely the length of my little finger (not counting the tail) he scurries frantically behind the ornate carvings of the ancient instrument... and in the dark of the night, I hear little chitterings, and an occasional twang - and make a mental note to call the piano tuning chap.

The piano is over a hundred years old. My grandma bought it from her neighbour Phoebe, who had inherited it from a grand aunt. It's an upright model, made of carved ebony and once had an ivory keyboard. this was removed by an overzealous piano tuner who replaced it with cheap plastic keys because "the old keys are badly stained, madam". I'm sure he made a tidy profit from the whole deal... My mum says to look at the bright side - at least we're not playing baila on what is effectively a murdered elephant!

I have wrestled successfully with the urge to play a few crashing chords and scare the daylights out of the little guy who has made it his home... and that's the very thing that stops me... he's such a little guy. Unlike the Maradana rats that frequent the hospital, the ones that send the moggies running for cover.

Besides, he's a sociable little fellow... even in mid scurry he would turn and look at me with shiny, beady eyes. And when I shone a torch behind the piano, instead of cowering in the shadows, he stuck his little head out and stared at me, blinking owlishly in the glare.

Ah well... live and let live, I guess!

13 comments:

Serendib_Isle said...

Looks like you have a soft spot for the lil’ fella. ;)
So is he gonna stay or the piano chap is on the way..?

~ lo$t $oul ~ said...

Arent u plannin on experimenting on him???

St. Fallen said...

aawwwwww
mrs. chubchubbs made a mousey friend :D

Anonymous said...

Erm, wait till he have babies. then you'll really have fun.
I find it much easier to get rid of the bachelor than a family with babies. Then its heart breaking.

Anonymous said...

On a not so totally unrelated note, has there been any news of Samitha Samanmali ? It is the last sentence of the bold mouse that reminded me of her ?

Jack Point said...

That must be a classic piano. What make is it?

A stupid piano repair man did the same to my mother's piano - stripped the ivory and replaced it with plastic.

Your post reminded me of the song, Windmill in Old Amsterdam

Watch it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqQiHHvQ6Nc

Just make sure the piano does not end up like windmill....:)

Lady divine said...

I can't stand mice/rats what ever...

I scream... and run...and scare them with my shattering screams..:)

Scrumps said...

Awww! Isn't the mouse supposed to Lord Ganesh's companion no? Live and let live indeedy my dear! :)

That Girl said...

Whoa the very same thing happened to us too. My grandmothers old ivory key piano was sent for tuning and was replaced with plastic AND there's a tiny mouse living in it now..he visits my dad every morning :)...

so "same pinch" i guess ;)

Angel said...

Serendib : well... after anons alert about him nesting we called for one of those non killing traps. it's still pending though...

Lo$t : mice - no... snakes, yes...

Fallen : -_-

Annon 1 : warning taken!

Annon 2 : Well, Samitha is back at the faculty, in a wheelchair, but she attends lectures and tutorials regularly now (earlier she was too tired to attend full day activities). Physiotherapy has really helped, and she has developed good dynamic sitting balance etc. and faced grueling sessions with a lot of determination. She works hard and has managed to keep up with her batch.

JP : Johnson Suisse or something. thanks for the link... I like!

LD : Can't really blame you... they aren't very nice... or hygienic

Scrumpy : *hug*

That Girl : I wonder what the piano tuners are doing nicking all the ivory keys! It's probably a well organised scam!

Knatolee said...

CLearly it's mouse-time all around the world! Go check out what happened here this week:

http://knatolee.blogspot.com/2009/11/mouser-squad.html

I have three incredibly useless cats!

~ lo$t $oul ~ said...

I've got a bugger back now.. after extermination so many, you wanna adopt him.. or can i go ahead n finish him off???

Angel said...

Knatolee : I know! The world is being taken over!

Lo$t : I can't give you a nod to kill an animal! Please set him free near a marsh... or a garbage dump!