Mousie Saga

Well, we have had quite the adventure in our house these last couple of weeks. Before we left on our vacation (sorry, that's part of the reason I haven't posted for so long!), I spied a mouse running around in our living room. Then we went to Iowa, visited our families, came back, and the mouse was still here.

In the past, we've always had cats, sometimes several cats at one time, who lived around & under our house & ate the mice before they got into the house. So I haven't really had to deal with mice overly much. But, as those of you who have experienced mice in your house know, they are SOOOO destructive. They eat through any kind of plastic or paper bag or box, eating & contaminating any food found inside, and they pulverize any kind of fabric or stuffing (potholders, blankets, sweaters) to make nests. Not to mention the thousands of little pieces of 'mousie evidence' that will be found anywhere they've made an appearance.

After being home from vacation a couple days and seeing the mouse several times, and finding many chewed & eaten things in my kitchen, I was totally disgusted and beginning to lose my mind. I couldn't sleep at night because I was imagining the mouse running over me (or worse, my 10-month old) in bed. I dreamed of mice & rats chasing me through the house & even getting caught in my vacuum. I thought I heard the mouse scratching at Z's end of the baby monitor. I jumped at every noise I heard come from anywhere near my cabinets, every creak of the house. It was ridiculous.

We bought the plastic snap traps, and a box trap that they're supposed to walk into & not be able to get out of. The mouse deftly avoided them and, in fact, ate the peanut butter OUT of the plastic traps without being snapped. The only time those traps snapped was when I was trying to load them. Can't you just see the mouse holding the trap open with his front paws while eating the peanut butter? Yech.

Finally, at the store yesterday, we bought some glue traps. These are sticky little pools that the mouse will get stuck in & not be able to get out. Someone recommended them to us. So we bought 8. I opened the top kitchen cabinet, above my head, to put the first one in, only to see the mouse peering down at me from a stack of my potholders. I considered throwing the glue trap AT the mouse, but instead I decided to scream, slam the door, and scare the baby, who began to cry. Much more effective.

When Hubby came home, I asked him to put the glue traps in the cabinet, which he was able to do successfully, without seeing the mouse. A couple hours later, I heard something moving around in the cabinet, and asked Joel to check the traps. He opened the door, and the mouse was sitting NEXT to one of the traps, staring at us. I screamed, burst into tears & proceeded to rant in detail about how I was losing my mind, and why was the mouse sitting NEXT to the trap, and when would he ever DIE already, and how MUCH of my STUFF would he EAT before it was over. How pathetic am I?

Anyway, this morning, Hubby checked the traps again, and found the little critter FINALLY stuck to one of the traps. Hallelujah. It was actually kind of cute, just sitting there looking at us, when we knew it couldn't get us. I said this to Hubby & he gave me the wierdest look. It said, "Seriously?" :) Hubby doesn't like touching mice, but he managed to get the trap into a plastic bag & throw it in the camp's dumpster!!! I think I did a jig when the mouse was gone. It remains to be seen whether he was our one & only mouse, or whether he brought friends and family. The remaining glue traps will be staying in their positions, at the ready. Just in case.

So overall, along with a small portion of my sanity, which may have been questionable to begin with, I lost a bag of rice, some navy beans, some peanut butter crackers & Saltines, breath mints, a bottle of sprinkles, two potholders and a kitchen towel. SO FAR. Hopefully this was a solo job and I won't find more stuff chewed into. Blech. So there's your disgusting story for the week.