Not one of New York's Finest...

... Finest moments.

Let me start off by saying I have the utmost respect for NYC cops. This is just a humorous occurrence that I thought would be good to post.

So, I was sitting in un-disclosed corner Pizza Parlor on the Upper East Side of New York, grabbing a slice with L. We were sitting at a table in the back of the un-disclosed Pizza joint. To L's back, there was a uniformed female New York police officer cleaning up her ticket book, or doing some other type of paper work in the little black book they all carry.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see something scuttle along the floor. I look and it is a tiny little field mouse. Not a rat mind you, but the ones with the big ears and small bodies.

"hey, look, we have a visitor." I say. L turns to look, but by that time it had scurried back underneath the crevice in the door leading to the basement. I don't think L believed me, because the crack under the door was quite small. We continued to eat our slices.

Then, our little friend returned and sat in the middle of the floor, looking straight at us, saying with its big eyes, "look at me, I am a cute little mouse... feed me... pwweeeease." You know, the cute little look a puppy gives you as you sit at the kitchen table, eating your lunch.

L looks at the mouse and says, "awww, how cute."

Apparently the cop overheard our conversation because she turned and looked, also. As soon as she saw the mouse, she jumped up, knocking over her chair. Her hand went directly to her holster.

There they were, cop and mouse, staring each other down, eye to eye. Her hand, ready to draw her side iron if the mouse so much as flinched.

I ask her if she is going to shoot it? She looks at the mouse, then her gun, then to the mouse again.

"Good point," she says and then moves her hand away from her gun and further along her belt. Without letting her eyes leave those of the mouse, she pops the button on her pepper spray and pulls is from its pouch. She holds it in line with the mouse. Very slowly, she blindly reaches with her other hand for her book on the table. The mouse still looks at her saying, "What? Aren't I cute? Feed me pwetty pwease."

The cop slowly backs her way to the door, never letting the mouse out of her sight. She reaches out behind her to feel for the door, pepper spray, still leveled and ready. The door, now opened, she turns and sprints out the door.

No warning to the establishment's owners... No nothing...

The mouse, seeing that the excitement is over, heads back under to door.

L and I go back to eating our slices, both of us knowing that this woman would take down a criminal without blinking, but was scared to death of a little field mouse.