Letterboxer Vs. Mouse

Letterboxers use caution retrieving boxes out in the woods, because you never know what is going to be in that little nook or cranny. I was frankly a little sleepy while boxing this stretch and was dreaming of a very Special Cup of Coffee ;).  So I was half asleep when I removed the top piece of bark and found a mouse running around. Yikes! 

Here's the backside of the stump. Looks like a mouse hole for sure. The mouse escape hatch goes down between the loose bark and the stump. Quite convenient.

Unfortunately for the mouse, this letterboxer brings along a terrier bred to kill varmits. She immediately starts rooting around in the mouse's private runway under the bark, so the mouse goes back up towards the letterbox.  Yikes!  The mouse runs into me pulling more stuff off the letterbox and goes back down, runs into the dog, and runs back up. Eventually I get everything out of the stump and there is nowhere for the mouse to hide. So the flustered mouse runs up onto a rock at the top of the stump, and just hangs there. 

Poor little guy is terrified.  I take a few shots with the camera, and finally pick up my dog so she can see. 

Biscuit (my dog) and the mouse are face to face, about a foot or two away from each other, for a couple seconds, then the mouse does a spectacular jump, the dog immediately flies out of my arms after the mouse, and starts digging frantically in the dirt for it. But of course he is long gone. And I am able to safely retrieve the letterbox and stamp in.