Monday, April 13, 2009

Of mice and bunnies

I don't remember the song about Little Bunny Foo Foo from my childhood. I remember a friend's 6 year-old daughter singing it to me with great glee some years ago though:
Little bunny, Foo Foo
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head
No worse than many fairy tales of course, but some of the videos of it that I found online were pretty gruesome. Of course, there are sanitized versions around with no mention of the bopping on the head:

Little Bunny Foo Foo


On Saturday DS asked me a question I couldn't make sense of to start with.
- D'you think the bunny in the attic will keep me awake tonight?
- Huh?
- The bunny bopping the field mice on the head.
I explained that Little Bunny Foo Foo and the Easter Bunny are different rabbits, and that the Easter Bunny was unlikely to be hunting mice in our attic. He didn't seem entirely convinced. I guess he thinks rabbits are carnivores, despite seeing them regularly in the backyard eating the vegetation.

We do have mice in the attic, and would like them to be gone, but imaginary bunnies are not likely to be the answer to our problem. Nor indeed are the real bunnies we have in the yard, especially as they have problems of their own. Instead, DH has installed some (humane) traps in the basement. He complains about mice in the attic, but puts the traps in the basement. Where's the logic in that, I hear you asking. The logic in that is that the piece of attic where we hear the mice most often is inaccessible (to humans at least!), so we can't put any traps up there. The logic in that is that the traps in the basement have been being licked clean by the mice on a regular basis - so we know they're down there too - we just don't hear them as much as the ones above us. And we have caught mice in the basement before. In fact, we caught one this morning, and here he is having been transferred to a glass jar so the children could see him before he was taken back outside.


Not a wonderful photo I'm afraid, because my camera kept wanting to focus on the glass instead of the rodent. He appeared fairly traumatised by the whole experience of being caught, but I'm sure he'll be back. With friends. After all, he's found a nice supply of food in our basement. The peanut butter-laden traps have been down there for weeks and the mice have been cleaning them out on a regular basis and managing not to get caught until today. Why wouldn't he try to come back?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You misrepresent the Foo Foo song if you don't get to the part where the good fairy scolds "I don't wanna see you, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head"... it's a morality tale, really! :-) Actually it would never have occurred to me that it was gruesome, only comical. Can't see the video for some reason (probably Mac related)

Maddy said...

Where did you find those adorable children :)

I had forgotten that song. I'd never heard it before until my daughter came home from pre-school with it firmly under her belt.

Maybe you could swap the mice for a cat?
Cheers

Canoez said...

I'd be perfectly willing to swap the mice for a cat. :-D

(Thanks, Maddy!)

Almost American said...

NFAH - yes, it's not really that gruesome, though some of the videos of it on YouTube are pretty unpleasant. A lot of the kids I know who sing it just sing that first part over and over, liking the 'bopping them on the head' part. The video plays OK on my Mac BTW.

Maddy - adorable children? Well, they're certainly not mine! Just some random find online! As for a cat, that would be a definite NO! Do NOT encourage my DH in that thought!!!! I put up with the last cat we had in the house for far longer than I should have done, and I am now committed to as many years without a cat in the house as I had to suffer with one. I am not anti-cat as such. Just anti-cat in my house. I've got to have an allergy test before we even talk about it anyway.

AliBlahBlah said...

What a great photo! He looks really evil (!).

I suggest chopping their tails with a carving knife.

Anonymous said...

I don't know that song either. I would freak if I found a mouse in my attic! Arrrgh!

Expat mum said...

When mine were little they were more British than American and used to say "bashing them on the head" for some reason!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you posted this song! Yesterday via the mail I received a gift of a wooden folk art rabbit. I named it Bunny Foo-Foo... and all day long I've been trying to remember the words of this song.

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