Goodbye Little Mouse...

Our mouse, Domino, after being with us only a short time, has met with eternal destiny. This past Saturday my daughter found it dead in it's cage. In her memory I am posting the story of how she came to live with us...

God Answers Prayers

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. James 5:16b (New Living Translation)

You know, this day started out pretty normal.

I have been fighting a sinus infection for weeks now so it took a little effort to drag myself out of bed to greet the hustle and bustle of the getting ready for school crowd. Clothed, brushed, and backpacks on their backs, I shoed them out the door and went back to take my shower.

I forget what called me back into the living room so many hours ago but I never did take that shower today. I stumbled into the kitchen to get some Tylenol and turned around...then I saw it...the running wheel to the hamster cage was not attached to the cage and "Oreo," my 9 year old daughter's hamster, was gone. <> I did not need this today. Did I mention I haven't been feeling well? We put the cat and dog outside and my husband and I, as nonchalantly as is possible so as to not alert the 5 yr old and 2 yr old that were still at home (and, I'm almost ashamed to say, so engrossed in PBS that they barely noticed), began the search. We looked high and we looked low but to no avail...Oreo was gone… or a goner… but she was not to be found.

Fast forward now to later in the day… past the dentist appointment for my 5yr old…past the late lunch at McDonald's because said dentist appointment took MUCH longer than anticipated…straight to 3PM when my daughter gets out of school.

My husband was at work…I got the job of telling her…

There was shock at first (she just didn't say anything)...then tears (she is nothing if not a drama queen)...to which I, of course, being the overwhelmingly child centered parent that I usually am not, offered to get her a new hamster right then and there. Well, that cheered her up enormously and I thought all was well and the complete meltdown that I expected had been avoided.

Boy was I wrong.

We made one quick stop at our chiropractor’s and then to the pet store where we ended up spending $23 on a $4.99 MOUSE that was our replacement pet (different food, a new wheel, a potty for the mouse - did you know that mice can be potty trained?? I can't potty train my 2 year old but supposedly a mouse can be potty trained!! Maybe if I put the 2 year old in a cage with a litter box?!) We all trot home, clean up the old HAMPSTER cage and convert it to a MOUSE cage, and all is well.

Or so I thought.

Fast forward again …past dinner… past daddy leaving to work his night job…past baths and prayers… to the uncontrollable sobbing I hear coming from my 9 year olds bedroom. She IS a drama queen, but when she hides in her room to cry...well, that just breaks my heart because that's real...and here I thought I had avoided the crisis with some well laid bribery!

Darn!!

So I sat with her and rubbed her back and prayed for her to find peace.

She prayed to find the hamster.

I stumbled into my living room, plopped down on the couch, and was about to indulge in some mind numbing blinking box watching when the dog started barking and whining to get in. I grumbled, quite loudly, and got up and let her in. She walked directly over to our old computer closet and lay down with her nose at the base of the cabinet. I noticed this somewhere in the back of my brain, but I ignored her.

She was not going to be ignored.

She got up and ran around our dining room table about 15 times, turned in about 5 circles in front of me and then went back and lay down in front of the computer closet. Well, if any of you have met my dog, you will understand that this is not really unusual behavior for her...but it nudged me. I looked at that closet. I had looked in that closet this morning. That closet is filled with four years of homeschool AHEM...STUFF...that I have been avoiding going through since last JUNE...<>...I got up off my very comfortable couch and I took all that stuff out of that closet...no hamster...now I'm going crazy...and the dog hasn't moved. This closet weighs about 200 lbs and I can't move it, especially by myself, but I have just realized there is a crawl space under this thing that is about the perfect size for a hamster. Now I am at a crossroads, do I go back and watch TV and say I gave it a good old college try? I grumbled a little as I climbed into the closet. I pushed the backing off the closet. I got out a penlight and a mirror. There, under years of AHEM...STUFF...was that blasted hamster; quite alive albeit a little shell shocked, underneath the closet that I can't move and have about 2 inches of space behind. I put the dog outside. I went and got my 9 year old (it was going to take at least two of us to catch this thing)...SHE WAS JUBILENT...with my head in this closet using a mirror and a pen light and a stick we shoed and chased and cajoled this creature trying to catch it …it was quite a sight…to no avail when suddenly… I had a "moment"...one of those moments where you get an idea that comes out of nowhere and you know it had to be God…I went and got one of the tubes from her cage and set it on the floor...now she's a fat hamster and she gets stuck about half way up these tubes and has to push herself through them with all her might, and she can’t get out unless she goes all the way up and turns around and comes down...Well, It did the trick, she came running for home. And, as predicted, she got stuck.

I picked her up and put her back in her cage then I looked at my daughter (she was grinning from ear to ear) "You prayed, didn't you?" She nodded her little blond head. "God answers prayers, doesn't He?" She nodded again. "Don't ever forget that okay?" She hugged me and whispered in my ear "thanks mommy..."

You see, God Answers Prayers...sometimes he answers them with a crazy dog and a tired Mommy with a penlight and a mirror…God Answers Prayers…even prayers of a 9 year old. (and now *I* have a hamster AND a mouse living in my home....hmmmmm)

7"Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you” Matthew 7:7 (New International Reader's Version)