Did mouse really burn house?

This story is just too, ahem, hot for the Wall of Wheeze. If we had 24 hours a day free to scour the Web for burning-mouse-house updates, we might be able to stay on top of the "yes it did/no it didn't/yes it really did" twists and turns surrounding this tale of intrigue and a revenge-seeking rodent.

Clearly we're dropping the ball on our mousefire coverage. So, I'm hoping this is the last thing we hear from Luciano Mares, 81, about the mouse that did -- or didn't -- escape a fire to burn down Mares' New Mexico house.

"That dang mouse crawled in there," Mares, who talks quickly and in slightly broken English, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "I have an awful hate for those critters."

But he loves cats ...