Thank you to darling Becs for roleplaying this one with me, and contributing several ideas. I'm sure she'll make her husband extremely proud.
As before, she is 21, He is 56.
We Learn Together Part 2 - The Mousetrap.
The trail started outside the back door. A piece of cheese about an inch cubed.
As instructed, she crawled on all fours, approaching the cheese, and picked it up with her mouth, chewed and then swallowed.
She crawled towards the house, but there was no way in directly. She noticed the garage door shutter left just enough of a gap for her to squeeze under.
Once in the garage she devoured the 2nd morsel of cheese, and headed towards the door adjoining the garage and the main house, still on all fours, her bare knees beginning to scuff.
Once inside, she crawled across the kitchen, its cushioned vinyl floor relatively kind to her knees, and into the living room.
A larger piece of cheese was suspended by a string at the rear of some open backed box like structure. She headed for it, and had to crawl part way through a large steel hoop to reach it. She had been told there were three tasty morsels, she was proud to have found them all. With her paw she pulled on the cord to feed herself.
Big Mistake.
By pulling the string she had activated the spring loaded hoop, and it tightened around her waist, rendering her unable to move forwards or backwards. Instinctively she passed her hands through two of the three openings at the front of the box to steady herself.
Big mistake.
The bar dropped down and wedged her hands in place. He locked the cuffs with a satisfied smile. The humane trap had worked - to a certain extent. True he had had to be close by to ensure safe and efficient operation, but the principle was sound. This was but a prototype. A motion sensor would automate the process allowing him to watch on the cameras next time.
She poked her head through the third, larger, aperture, dragging her hair through until it tumbled against the outer wall of the structure.
He sat in the armchair and surveyed the scene. He watched her struggle, frantically trying to release herself, but the more she tried, the more stuck she became. Finally, exhausted, she gave up.
He moved to the front of the trap and fed her another piece of cheese, which she ate gratefully. He dipped his thumb into a jar of peanut butter and allowed her to suck it from him. He let her sip from a jug of water, much of it dribbling down her chin.