And I hear something.
It sounds like the man who sits across from me is in his cube, but he never comes in this early. I stand up to check, but no, he's not here. I sit down again.
Not much time passes before I hear the noise again, and it lasts a little bit longer this time.
I wheel back and check under my desk. I don't see anything, but there are stories of mice, so I'm leery. I stay partially wheeled away from the desk.
The noise comes again and it lasts a really long time. Long enough for me to decide it is a mouse and it's either behind my recycle bin or trapped inside the cube wall that separates my space from the guy who sits across from me. I get to my feet and back way, way, way away from the desk.
Now I have a problem. My laptop is unlocked and we're not supposed to leave them in this condition if we're not there. I need to reach the keyboard and hit Control-Alt-Delete to lock it. Since my arms are normal length, this means I have to get closer.
I stretch as far as I can and I keep hearing the noise!
Finally, I lock the computer, grab my phone and the water, and hightail it to the other side of the office.
Where I stay, talking to the other guys who are in until my boss arrives. I tell him about the mouse in my cube. He goes with one of the men I'm talking with to corral the rodent.
As it turns out, they didn't have to do much. The mouse had fallen into my recycle bin, which is tall, and it couldn't get out again. The noise I heard was the thing trying to get out. Which led me to believe it was running on top of my desk and fell.
I immediately got spray cleaner out and cleaned the top of my desk, my shelves, and I had some unwrapped plastic silverware on another shelf. I tossed them.
The mouse was released outside at lunchtime. I'm not sure it survived long because this was likely an indoor mouse and it wouldn't know what to do outside. I'm not mourning its likely death. I'm not a fan of rodents.
