$('#homefeature').mouseleave(function() { does not even work?

$('#homefeature').mouseleave(function() { does not even work?

I've had this problem with other sites as well since I started using jQuery a year ago - the function simply does not work as expected.

I have also tried the jQuery mouseout as a substitute and it literally does not do anything, not even an alert will fire when I wave my mouse in any manner, frantically or otherwise over the specified element, which have always been div's with an ID.

Is there some trick to getting this to work or what the heck am I doing wrong!?  Here is the function in its entirety:

$('#homefeature').mouseleave(function() {
  document.getElementById('homefeaturepics').style.display = "";
    document.getElementById('homefeaturecontent').style.display = "none";
});

or

$('#homefeature').mouseout(function() {
  document.getElementById('homefeaturepics').style.display = "";
    document.getElementById('homefeaturecontent').style.display = "none";
});

If there are no obvious problems or workarounds to this situation that people know if I'll pull the code together for you to look at.  I really appreciate any advice or ideas.

Thanks!