A Mouse in the House and Animals that Rhyme - writercize #55

Sadly, we have a mouse in the house.  It is an uninvited guest with a chocolate-snatching habit and sly as a fox intelligence.  

Our preference is that it vacate the premises immediately without incident.  Since this does not seem to be the mouse's preference, the more likely scenario will involve the mouse's end.  We tried to catch it with cheese on a glue trap, but it stood on the trap, ate the cheese, and somehow used super-rodent strength to break free.  The next day we saw four paw prints sunk into the glue, but no food and no mouse.  We tried to lure it into a box of poisonous mouse food, with the idea that it would consume the food and return to its nest outside to pass away.  Apparently, salty mouse poison is not appealing to a mouse with a sweet tooth.  

Today we discovered the mouse had somehow climbed up a tall table, into a bowl and snatched Kit Kat bars out of the box, back to the ground, behind the couch, opened the wrappers and eaten them.  The mouse has serious dexterity and bravado.  If it were not a mouse, I would want to catch it alive and encourage it to join the circus.  But it's a mouse and it's spending nights in my house, and as much as I hate to kill any creature (besides mosquitoes and spiders that is) I want it gone.  Yesterday.  So, tonight we shall devise a new plan and hope for no more nocturnal visitors in the very near future.

While I was contemplating the best way to semi-humanely dispose of this mouse in the house, the kids' writer part of me started to have fun with the way a mouse in the house rhymes, so out of a frustrating situation in our living room, tonight's writercize was born.

writing exercise:  Write a poem or short-story about an animal or animals in rhyme.  If you need help brainstorming animals, here are a few that are easy to find rhyming words:  cat, frog, dog, horse, cow, mouse, rat, bug, pig, fish.  Some animal ideas if you're looking for more of a challenge:  monkey, donkey, zebra, hippo, camel, spider.

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

writercizer sample response:

There's a mouse in the house

and he's eating my food

says the cat on the mat

in a sourpuss mood.

There's a cat on the mat

and he's blocking our way

says the ants carrying plants

trying to all their work for the day.

There are ants carrying plants

and I don't like their parade

says the funky spider monkey

in a grouchy tirade.

There's a funky spider monkey

who stole my bananas

says the girl as she swirls

dressed up with bandanas.

There's a girl who swirls

but needs to go to bed

say Mama and Daddy

to their little sleepyhead.