Mr Sneakers, the Newfoundland Mouse, meets Moggy

Mr Sneakers had free run of the house when the human wasn't looking of course. He'd been silly enough to be seen the last time when he had paused from his mad dash about the place to clean his paws and she spotted him, commenting to her friend that he was cute she dubbed him: Mr Sneakers.
Miss Z’s confidant warned that where there was one, others would follow. How do they know these things? After that the conversation turned frightful; the companion suggested a CAT and knew a neighbor who had one to spare. ‘No’ came the answer, then she'd have to look after kitty!
When Mrs X visited again a week later, she found Miss Z hiding little traps all over the house. A few in the basement, a couple upstairs, several in the attic. Mr Sneaker found them all and cautioned is mates to avoid them.

“What on earth...” stammered Mrs X.

A troupe of mice were rampaging full tilt across the attic floor.

“Oh, state the obvious.” Miss Z remarked at the doleful expression of her cohort. “The traps are humane and I’m sure to collect them all and put them back outside where they belong very soon now.”

Looking doubtful, Mrs X suggested again that a small furred animal was the answer to the herd now amassing in the attic and mumbled again, ‘Where there was one...’

A loud knock came to the door and Miss Z responded. ‘Hello to the neighbor’, at least it would have been if he hadn’t brought Moggy with him. As it was cold outside and he couldn’t very well stand in the doorway allowing a draft to invade so she shooed him in.

“I heard you had mice so I brought Mog over to help out, he’s an awful good mouser.”

Ears attentive to the small scuttling coming from overhead, Moggy hit the floor and bounded straight up the stairs in a flash. Silence ensued. The three in the living room followed the sound of the creaking floor boards as the rodents were hunted. The wait seemed interminable until that wily tabby came slinking down into the room again as if nothing had happened. Indeed, there was some confusion as to whether anything was amiss in the attic so Mr. Neighbor volunteered to take a peek for the sake of the ladies wits. Cautiously he crept the narrow stairwell that led to the dimly lit chamber above and hesitated at the top. In the distance, toward the back of the alcove, an army of dormice were gathered. There seemed to be at least ten. Mr Neighbor duly informed the ladies.

Mr Neighbor positively insisted to Miss Z that it was absolutely no trouble at all for him to part with Moggy, then he was gone. Mrs X smiled in satisfaction.

After that Moggy was always about the house hunting Mr Sneaker and his accomplices; the tabby had a habit of lurking that would startle Miss Z every time she walked into a room. It was a deadly game of old fashioned cat and mouse but Mr Sneakers was clever; when the cat was searching the attic, he would led them into the basement and when Mog padded into the furnace room, the gang would sprint to the upper story. This continued, to the discomfiture of Miss Z, for over a week until she could not tell where the two parties actually were and at times both mice and cat seemed very confused themselves. Then one afternoon a series of wild little squeaks resounded from the cellar.

Miss Z took an awful start at the unexpected sound, hurried to the stair and snapped on the light. As she carefully descended Mog was right behind her tiptoeing all the way. There, in the corner, where she had left two open traps were the mice. Five in each humane trap, very agitated and jumping at the sides. They quieted at the stealthy approach of Moggy.

Miss Z stooped and raising the cages remarked, “Well, that’s that then. Outside you go.” And outside they went.

That very day Miss Z proudly announced to both Mr Neighbor and Mrs X when they came by to check on the situation, that the little rodents were decamped from her home. Moggy boastfully entwined all their legs as they listened intently to Miss Z’s telling of her story. She gave the impression that both factions had become baffled concerning who was where in the house in their efforts to either avoid altogether or to catch and eat; Miss Z summed up her tail expressing her sentiment that Mr Sneaker had become so confused that he led the rest to enter the traps by mistake to the happy conclusion of the whole episode.

Catspaw