Group+C

This page is for Group C only:
 * 1) **Moore, Tierney**
 * 2) **Morris-Diaz**
 * 3) **Samuels**
 * 4) **Vesoulis**
 * 5) **Murphy**
 * 6) **Wall**

=What was That Thing?=


 * Tom Cat was smiling, with a tail hanging out of his mouth. It was a toothy grin, the kind you would see on a possum that had just eaten a sack of persimmons. The thing was wigglin' and scared me to death when it twisted sideways and peeped through the space between Tom Cat's two front teeth. Its eyes were squinted and red, and when I screamed, Tom Cat's mouth flew open and you should've seen...**

...the size of the mouse that Tom Cat consumed. It must have been six inches long and weighed at least five pounds. It looked alot like my daughter's first pet mouse, Mindy, but we burried her four years earlier. Mindy the Mouse, as we called her, loved to eat cheese and always fed on our dinner scraps after nightly meals. She truly was a great member of our family, and after her death, we mourned the loss. When Tom Cat's mouth flew open, this mouse scattered out with reckless abandon, trying to escape another encounter with the savage beast. The mouse quickly moved through the kitchen, followed closely by Tom Cat in pursuit. Then all of a sudden, I heard the kitchen door swing open. My daughter was returning from dance lessons that evening. She saw the portly mouse and screamed. (lvesoulis)

Her scream gave Tom Cat a momentary scare, which was enough time for the mouse to escape from him. The mouse found sanctuary in a hole in the wall between the space between the refrigerator and the wall. My daughter glanced over at me and I nodded. We had endured this mouse for weeks now and we have been depending too long on Tom Cat to solve the problem to no avail. Not too mention that this mouse was not only large but very smart as it carefully avoided our mouse traps. I called a critter control guy and he came over the next day and that was the day the mayhem begun. As he walked in and out of the house, unbeknownst to me, Tom Cat rushed outside and escaped! Once I realized that Tom Cat was missing, I started to go out to look. However, Jack, the critter control guy, stopped me mid-track. He told me that this large mouse was the least of our worries because there was another creature was living in the house too. (dmorrisdiaz)

"Huh?" I said, in complete bewilderment. I couldn't think of anything worse than this awful rat running around my house. He asked me to follow him into the small closet underneath the stairwell. I had not been in this closet since we moved into this house 3 years ago. I remember stuffing it full of unopened boxes and I haven't opened the door since. Jack opened the door, turned the light on, and pointed to a big tail hanging out from around the corner of one of the boxes. It was almost the same color as the cardboard box, so it was hard to point out at first. Then it moved and I shrieked! (tmoore)

Since my daughter was really into watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, she had fallen in love with the Turtles' rat leader known as sensei. After seeing the mouse the previous day, my daughter really wanted to a new pet. And since she liked rats, my wife and I talked and decided to let her keep the rat (actually my wife said we were keeping it, and I said no, which meant we were keeping it). We paid Jack for coming over, and asked him to find a more suitable home for the crafty mouse, which he obliged. My daughter Autumn instantly fell in love with this new critter and called him Roscoe the Rat. (lvesoulis)

Roscoe was a lovable little guy that ate almost anything that we fed him. In the upcoming days and even weeks with Roscoe, as Autumn played with him and placed new toys in his glass home, Tom Cat returned. He had remembered the love, food and playful little gilrl, named Autumn that spent hours on hours with him. One morning when the back door swung open as I took the trash out, Tom Cat crawled back into the house as I caught him out of the corner of my eye. I remembered at that moment, with anxiousness, that we had a rat in a glass box inside. As I feared for Roscoe the Rat's life, I slamed the garbage can lid down on the ground and ran into the house to find Tom Cat stretched out on the couch getting ready for a nap. (ewall)

My first instinct told me to check Roscoe's cage. . . he was curled into his cozy corner blanket--all okay there, but something was about to happen, I knew it! Autumn came into the living room and was so excited to have Tom Cat back that I couldn't throw him out---yet, but how was I to balance the tricky laws of nature between the cat and the mouse? We would have to watch them both very carefully to see how the relationship would go. Tom Cat enjoyed Autumn's attention and seemed happy to be back home. I noticed that he was not in bad shape for a cat that had been roaming for the past couple of weeks; he was fat and lazy. Not surprisingly, we would find out that very night after Tom Cat had rested up and was ready to prowl. (rsamuels)

There had been so much action in our household over the past week. Losing Tom Cat, capturing our new pet Roscoe, and the return of Tom Cat caused me to forget about what was still lurking around in that closet underneath the stairwell. That night, I bravely opened the closet door to capture the unknown creature. I looked and looked for that ugly brown tail and felt for sure that it belonged to a snake. But I couldn't see it anywhere. Just then, I heard something at my feet. It was Tom Cat, ready for his pursuit. He knew the snake was hiding somewhere. He could smell it. Confident in Tom Cat's ability, I stepped out of the closet and closed the door. After a few minutes of rumbling, tumbling, and scratching around the boxes, the closet was silent again. I opened the door to find Tom Cat smiling with that same toothy grin he had before. (tmoore)

As Tom Cat looked at me, he seemed to be content as he walked toward the couch and leaped up on the cushion and curled up for what seemed like was going to be a long nap. Now as I turned around I saw Roscoe in his glass box, he seemed to be stressed, he was not eating like he did when we first caught him. A wild animal that is caged does not live to long in captivity. He seemd to be so unhappy. I knew I had to talk to Autumn, to ask her to think about releasing him. I know she loved him so much but my hope was since Tom Cat is back maybe she would forget about Roscoe. Autumn will be home from school soon and I hope I can find the words to share this with her. (ewall)

I had a speech prepared and was bracing myself for a emotional struggle but the talk with Autumn was easier than I imagined. She loved Roscoe and wanted him to live long and be happy. She understood that, in a way, we were taking Roscoe from following his own path. Plus, Tom Cat had been our pet for a long time and we had talked about possibly getting a dog in the future. However, we didn't want to get a lot of pets. Autumn agreed and said that we should release Roscoe in the woods behind our house. That evening we walked into the woods and released him. (dmorrisdiaz)

As we removed the top of the glass box, Roscoe's eyes twinkled and his nose immediately sniffed the air. He stretched to reach the top, but the glass sides were too slippery. I gently turned the container on its side and Autumn kneeled beside to bravely send Roscoe off with a prayer for long life and lots of cheese! Father and daughter walked back toward home hand-in-hand with a better appreciation for the natural order of life. Even in such strange ways, there is a plan and path for how and why the various crises in life occur--it's simply up to us to pay attention and learn along the way. Autumn will remember this event as she continues on her own journey in life. (rsamuels)