It is amazing how one little event can trigger a whole chain of events.  Yesterday morning when I opened the barn to feed the animals, I noticed that my favorite kitty didn't look so well.  In fact he looked very angry and somewhat afraid.  He was holed up in one of the portable kennels that I have out there for the cats to sleep in and he was very reluctant to come out.  When he finally did come out, he was limping and favoring his left hind hip.  He moved very slowly and very cautiously.  He watched for Mikie, the other cat, to leave the barn and then he deemed it OK to poke his nose out.  Since I haven't had much luck keeping cats around here and since Loki is my favorite cat, I did not like this at all.  I found one of the cat beds knocked on the floor so I surmised that maybe the two had fought over the bed.  Loki used to be my indoor cat until my daughter's dog, Lux, moved in.  I figured it was time for Loki to move back into the house.  I would juggle his schedule the same as I juggle Penny and Lux's schedules.  Loki and Penny are buddies so Loki can spend time in the bedroom with Penny whenever Lux is out and vice versa.  

Of course, this involved more work than I envisioned at first.  Of course!  I used to have a place in the pantry where I had a litter box and the cat food dishes.  If I wanted to have Loki in the house again I would have to restore that space which was now full of shelves of canned goods.  It is the pantry after all.  So I started moving things around and then I started cleaning things up cuz, Heaven forbid! one should move dirty things especially if they have been stored for a year and there are mice droppings everywhere!  My goodness!  

I moved bug spray and planting supplies to the garage.  I threw out canned goods that had expired dates.  Secretly, I think, if they are not opened they are probably still good, but my children would just choke on the very idea of eating anything that is "expired"  so out it goes!  Then I cleaned and moved shelves and replaced the good canned items on the now cleaned and moved shelves.  I found old Christmas popcorn cans and cleaned and labeled them.  I placed items like sugar and flour in the labeled cans so that the nasty little mice could not damage these and render them unusable.  I found a bag of Top Ramen soup that had been chewed through and half the noodles eaten.  YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!

You know, I hadn't heard any mice in the house for a long time so I was kinda shocked by all the mess I found.  My ears must be getting old or else the mice just come out when I'm sleeping!  I am glad that everything is cleaned up and straightened up and that every thing in the pantry now is something good that we can use.  I also got the a covered kitty litter box from the barn and cleaned it up.  Steve got a new mat to put the cat food dishes on.  I brought Loki in and showed him the new set-up, which is the old set-up for him.  He seems to appreciate being inside again.  He comes and sits on my lap every chance he gets.  He spent the night prowling around the house.  Maybe there will be fewer mice now that Loki is back at his old job. I guess our little barn wasn't big enough for my two mousers.  Everybody needs their own job and their own space.  Hopefully, the balance between the two cats is restored.  I got a clean fresh pantry out of a cat fight! Ha!