The food was at the back of a small, white box. Mushkin put her foot on the smooth surface and tested it. Nothing bad happened. She sniffed and felt with her whiskers. Strange smells mixed with the tempting aroma of wheat but none that she recognised as dangerous.

She stretched her little body forward and stuck her head and paws into the box. Then she crawled in completely.

The floor rocked and something clicked. She turned around quickly but the way she had come was now blocked. For a moment, she panicked and threw her tiny form against her close prison but succeeded only in moving it across the floor and not herself out of it.

Then she calmed down and ate the morsel of cracker she’d been after in the first place. She understood that she was trapped and that was bad but no part of her could think her way out. When it started to get light, she slept.

We caught a mouse in our kitchen last night. We’ve named it Mushkin. I don’t know if it is male or female but we’ll call her she for the time being. She’s actually not a house mouse but a field mouse like the one above.

We think she found her way in through the walls and came in to escape the bad weather we had last week. There might be more of them so we will leave some food out tonight and see if it goes. If there are more I’d rather catch them all and release them all together.

Muskin is currently in a plastic box with some bedding, water and food. She seems pretty chilled out about it all.