We have a mouse.
Or, I should say, we had a mouse.
Or, I should say, we had mice.
For the first time in our nearly nine years of marriage, we had to dispatch some rodents.
It all started Friday night. My parents came over for the aforementioned peanut butter pie, and Jason discovered that some towels he'd put in the dryer before we left weren't dry yet. The air was working, but there was no heat. Or something.
He and my dad set about an investigation.
In the course of the investigation, the dryer (which, like the washing machine, is in the kitchen, though they aren't next to each other, GO FIGURE) was moved away from the wall, leaving the vent hole in the floor exposed.
Cut to Saturday night. I was sitting in my living room watching TV, when all of a sudden something small caught my eye at the left corner of the entertainment center.
It cut in and out of my field of vision enough for me to discern it's distinct mouse-like-ness.
I quickly called Jason in on the situation.
The mouse ran around the edge of the wall, across the doorway that leads to the hall, and behind the couch. There, we lost him.
Since it was so late, we decided to let him have one more night of reprieve and get some traps the next day.
Also, since rodents are mostly nocturnal, Jason decided it would be most efficient to wait until bed time to set them.
(Also, he wasted some of my good Skippy Natural Peanut Butter on those little monsters!)
All that night, I was edgy. I heard the floor creak, and asked Jason if that could be the mouse, coming to get us.
(His reply: "That would have to be an R.O.U.S." For those of you who aren't familiar with The Princess Bride, that stands for Rodents of Unusual Size. They live in the fire swamp. But I digress.)
About 11 p.m. last night, we heard a satisfying "snap." Jason got up to investigate (yes, alone!) and found one dead mouse beside the refrigerator.
I slept soundly, thinking our problem was over. Jason asked me to check the other traps this morning, but I thought that if we'd caught another mouse in the night, surely we'd be able to smell it by morning.
I thought wrong.
As I was leaving this morning, my eye caught something behind the couch.
It was small, brown, and attached to a mouse trap.
I once again summoned Jason, my Knight in Shining Armour.
He'd better not even set those traps tomorrow, because he'll be gone all day and I do NOT deal with dead animals of any sort.
Not the fish. And most certainly not mice.
I'm pretty freaked out right now, to think that we had not one but TWO. And if two, who knows how many more came up through that vent hole?
shudder
10 comments:
Oh, Melissa, I know what you're going through! We had mice a few years ago, and it would catch my eye too, while I was wrapping presents on the floor (it was around Christmas time). I would freak out and scream, so my husband would put the traps out. And sure enough, we got two in one night. That was it for a long time;
We had one just recently too, which we found behind some doors in the basement, but we rid of him in one night too. They love to get in from the cold!
I live in an old farm house, and I hate the little critters! Hope you have them all taken care of.
Of course it is the man's job to take care of things like that!
EEK!
:o)
Oh, Linda, I spent the summer once living in an old farm house. We were working at a children's home for their summer program.
We, too, had a mouse. He liked to eat the bite sized York Pepperming Patties we got from the home's supply warehouse (they were donated by Food Lion). We'd play cards at night in the living room floor, and he'd knock the candy out of the dish and unwrap it.
One night, he sat there and watched us play Phase 10. Very calm and collected.
I guess he must've been sick, because we found him dead soon thereafter.
Yuck! I hate mice! When we were little, we had one come in somehow and my dad set out some sticky stuff. I remember seeing it, yuck, yuck!
Oh, no. Not those sticky traps! I'm no PETA member, but those things are just cruel.
ooooh! i have a good mouse story...i'll have to post it.
i get it though, i wouldn't be touching them traps neither. ugggh.
Oh no they take a bit longer than that to smell bad! I know this from my work at a church office! YEUCK! Only our problem was rats not mice, eugh!
I hate rodents! I hate anything in my house that isn't supposed to be in my house! Anyway, one night I heard something scratching around my bed. I leaned over my mattress and there staring up at me was this mouse. I screamed and it ran off. My dad came in and we chased it...unfortunately we lost it. I couldn't sleep, but my mom assured me that mice can't climb so I was safe in bed. Perhaps it was the late hour or just me wanting to believe anything to be able to sleep, but I bought it and slept fine. LOL
If you catch another one, just throw the whole trap (mouse and all) away. We had a grundle of mice a while back. We had rented our house out for 6 months, then when we moved back in, discovered the the renters had allowed mice to gather and take over the basement. They ate our food storage that was down there, and it was so GROSS!!! Now every time I see a cat wander across the backyard, I think--get those mice and eat them! Because, yes, the thought of having a mouse in the house is enough to freak me out, too!
I want you to be very, very, very happy that you have a Knight in Shining Armor... I totally feel for you...
As I was reading your post it made me think of my mouse incident last week, which you can read here... http://www.desperatelyseekingsanity.com/2007/02/27/mice-cops-and-applesauce/
I hope you're mouse free.. I'm still living in fear...
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