Confidently, I strode toward the shed. I fully anticipated finding the materials that I would need to fence off one of our trees from our bark eating dog. Yes, I know that it doesn’t sound right, but we still manage to love our pup in all of his neurotic tree eating ways.

Opening our shed, I saw his face. Two little eyes staring back at me. A mouse who looked like he had plans to winter in a plastic tarp. My plastic tarp, not his.

As my furry little neighbor scurried away, I had only one thought in my mind, “Destroy him. Hunt that mouse and obliterate.” Well, that and “Stop my crazy dog from eating all of our trees. I must stop my crazy dog.”

Sure, it all sounds very primal, but it’s a zoo in our backyard and I plan on being the one that survives.