We hear that change is inevitable. We also hear that technology rules. Maybe that's conventional wisdom. Unconventional wisdom says that some things never change……….and that ain't all bad. I'm sort of glad that some things never change.

The simple wooden mousetrap, essentially unchanged since it was invented over 100 years ago, is still the second best mouse control. After thousands of years, the most effective control continues to be ………………the common cat.

Tom, a huge yellow tabby, for 13 years, controlled mice and rats around Humphries' Grocery and the millhouse. He provided us chillum a lot of entertainment, too. Tom made the store and the millhouse his home and Daddy was his master. Tom was in command around the store and millhouse and no gadget ever successfully challenged his authority to control rats and mice.

Tom had a pass to the kingdom……. small "cat hole" cut in the floor near the feed and grain storage area. This gave Tom the independence to come and go from the store as he pleased. If you know anything about cats, you already know, that's what they do anyway……..as they please. Too often the hole was blocked by a sack of feed, a drink bottle flat, or something. So, Tom became accustomed to jumping through the huge four-foot square window fan opening. The fan was off most of the time.

Tom would return from a night of hunting and jump through the window, go to the feed storage area, circle around the bags a time or two, and then curl up on top of the sacks and spend the remainder of the day, waking only to snatch a mouse that appeared around the feed sacks. During hot days the huge fan was turned on early to pull in the morning air. One summer morning Tom returned to the store from a night hunting expedition and jumped into the window while the fan was running. He'd done it before and escaped the slow turning blades. But, this morning was different; A blade caught Tom and wedged him between the blade and the fan housing…...Eeeeeeeh, Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh what a scream! Daddy knew immediately what had happened and began to scream in a high pitched tone, too. My cat's in the fan! My cat's in the fan! Mamma and Daddy frantically rushed to flip the fan switch off. With fan off, Tom sailed down and ran straight to the cat hole, to the ground below and out from under the store to the woods. We wondered whether we would ever see Tom again. But, as faithfully as ever,he appeared a few hours later, moving a bit slower but, otherwise unharmed. It's common country knowledge that cats have nine lives. One of Tom's cat lives was spent that morning; eight more to go. This happened on a couple of other occasions. The fan was belt driven and would merely slip when Tom got caught between the blade and the housing.

Tom really liked the mill house. Some of us chillun liked it too, especially when Tom the mouse killer was there. The abundance of corn meant a continual supply of mice and rats. Sacks of corn lined the walls neatly, like soldiers. One only had to move a sack or two before a mouse was certain to run. Watching Tom cunningly crouched with eyes fixed and his tail swaying slowly with anticipation, as each sack was moved, was something no modern-day video game could ever replace. To see Tom attack a mouse with lightning speed and deadly accuracy was more fun than shoot' in crows in Mr. Harley's watermelon field or impaling a big horse fly with a pine needle and watching it fly off.

If the Mice-Have-Rights Protection Society existed in those days, they never organized a protest at Myrick's Mill. Good thing. Unconventional wisdom maybe but, somehow I just don't think Tom would have liked those kind of folks get'in the way of him catch'in mice?

©2003 - William C. Humphries, Jr.