The little visitor

Today at work I was in the middle of a transaction at the cash register and I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked to my left, and scurrying across the floor was a tiny brown mouse. I was holing the money the woman getting coffee across the register from me had just given me but in the midst of trying not to freak out about the mouse, I totally lost concentration of what I was doing. I used all the focus I had to get her the right change and have her leave the counter. When my flamboyantly gay (and awesome) shift leader came back from wherever he was I let him know about our little visitor. He said he would call the owner and let him know.

A few minutes later we were helping more customers when I hear my shift leader say "Oh my god" under his breath. I looked over and the mouse was right at the edge of where behind the counter becomes the public seating area...just teetering on the edge of remaining a secret and becoming a public health code violation. I tried to keep a straight face as we worked through the line of customers. Then the little guy crawled under the refrigerated case where we keep soda, juice, water etc. Another girl who was working took the top of a plastic "clamshell" salad to-go container to try and trap the mouse when he came out from his hiding spot and I got the broom and dustpan in case he came my way. Needless to say, he really liked that spot and stayed there for a while.

Later in the night, my shift leader and I were standing at the espresso/sandwich end of the bar (farthest away from the soda/water/juice cooler) and the mouse came crawling back towards us, distracted by all the little bits of food on the ground. My shift leader and I both froze, knowing we had to trap him (or her) but not knowing how. I said "quick! give me something to put over it!" and the first thing he handed me was a big metal salad-tossing bowl, which i promptly covered the mouse with. My shift leader then ran to the back and got a much-too-large-for-a-mouse sized box. We slid the box under the bowl until the little mouse's tail was sticking out from the bowl, which was mostly in the box. then I pulled out the bowl with salad-tossing tongs and closed the box, and carried it outside to the dumpter. I could feel him scurrying around inside the box as I carried it, but then when I put it in the dumpster and opened it, he just sat there in the corner of the box. He was so tiny (smaller than a golf ball) and his heart was beating so fast, he must have been terrified. I left him in the box (hoping he'd find some good stuff to eat in the dumpster), and bid him farewell.

Mouse problem solved. For now.


Another highlight of the day included a man coming in as we were closing and asking for a scone. We told him we were closed, and he said, "I really need it, It's my birthday you can keep the change," and handed us ten dollars and walked out the door. My shift leader gave himself and me $5 each and let him have the scone "for free".

In other, more serious news, someone at the store got their purse stolen tonight. It's the third time it's happened there since I started working and the 5th time it's happened in the last month or so. Apparently it's some woman who comes in and just looks around or sits down for a while and then walks out and grabs things on the way. No good at all.

That's all for my adventures in coffee-land today. Mr (or Ms.) mouse definitely stole the show!