The Mouse Saga

Sunday, Hubs and I spent a couple hours out in the yard raking.  Not long after we came inside, I hear Hubs calling my name.

Me:  "What?"
Him:  "Did you put a sticky trap in the spare room?"
Me:  "There's one in the closet in there."
Him:  "No.  This one."

I walk over there and he's pointing to a trap that is now at the end of the bed.  The trap now has a splotch of fur on it and is chewed on one side.  And there's bits of trap paper in a line from under the closet door to where the trap now rests.

Me:  "We've got a mouse."

And sure enough, when we moved the bottom of the comforter from where it touches the floor, there it was, a tiny mouse staring up at us.

Now, you have to understand some things.  1) That bed has no frame, so its a mattress and box springs on the floor.  2) It's the cat's bed and, as such, it has big, flat, plastic boxes shoved tight along the side as 'stairs', to provide geriatric cat a gentle walk up to sleeping level.

So, there's this mouse, hiding under the comforter, but unable to escape further because the plastic boxes are shoved against the box springs.  And there we are, two grown and capable adults in a small bedroom chock full of furniture and plastic boxes, trying to figure out how to catch one tiny mouse.

Sounds easy.  I mean, the little thing was pretty much trapped, right?  Scoop it into a garbage can and off it goes to the big mouse house in the sky.  The mouse had other plans.  We almost had it when it saw a window of opportunity through the space between Hubs' legs. 

Understand some other things... 1) There is only about 3 feet between the bed and the door.  2)  There is only about 3 feet of space between the bed and the piano.  3) Most of that space is taken up by plastic boxes.  4)  Neither of us are exactly small people.

Hubs jumps, scrambling so the mouse doesn't run up his pantlegs.  I jump, scrambling off where I was laying across plastic boxes.  The mouse?  He runs under the dresser. 

At this point, we're stuffing things around the door so he doesn't get into the rest of the house, and trying to figure out a way to herd the cute, little bastard into an area where we can catch him.  Lucky for us, the dresser sits about 4 inches off the floor.  I can see the mouse.  He can see me.  I take a plastic hanger and herd him toward where Hubs is waiting with an old pillow case.  When the mouse is encouraged out from under the dresser, the idea is to throw the pillow case on top of him and whisk him away. 

Again, the mouse had other ideas.  He sees a new window and shoots out from under the dresser.  And the chase is on.  Under the piano (it's electric and sits on a stand, so no hiding there) across the front of the table where I keep my stereo, into the space between the head of the bed and the bookcase.  Aha!  I have him cornered! 

Nope.  He slips down the little crack between the bookcase and the wall.  He's behind the bookcase now.  I think.  But nope.  Peering down the cracks between the case and wall shows now mouse.  He's UNDER the damn thing.  While I keep an eye on the various routes the mouse could escape through and start de-booking the case, Hubs slips out to get a more effective mouse stopping tool. 

Everything off the bookcase, books and tchotchkes scattered everywhere, I lift the case (it's a two shelfer, so not that big) so Hubs can hit the damn thing with the spade he'd retrieved from the garage.  Carpet be damned, this mouse is gonna be a splat for sure.

The mouse had other ideas.

He runs for it.  Straight across the room and under the dresser again.  Okay, fine.  I get the plastic hanger I've been using as an encouraging tool and herd the damn thing toward the space where Hubs can finally get him.  Except...

Yep, other ideas again.

The mouse, moving exceptionally fast by this time, climbs the candle I was using to keep it from crawling through the space between the door and the plastic box we were using to keep him from crawling under the door.  He climbs the candle, runs across the plastic box and slips down the other side.  Hubs moves the box just in time for us to watch his little furry butt squeeze underneath the door.  Now, the mouse has access to the whole rest of the house.

But we had other ideas.  Hubs whips open the door and there's the mouse, thinking he's gotten away Scot free.  Hubs tries to chase him back into the bedroom with the shovel for easier containment, but the mouse jigs to his right and scampers under the telephone table... right onto the sticky trap I keep there to catch spiders.  And this time, he was stuck but good.

Hubs took stuck mouse and trap outside, and dispatched the little bugger as quickly and painlessly as possible.  At that point, there was nothing else to do with it.  You wanna try peeling a live and bitey mouse off a sticky trap? 

Anyway, such is life in the country.  I thought I'd jammed stuff in all the holes this house has, but there's one somewhere I missed.  Probably the hole where the dryer hose goes down under the house.  If they get in there, more power to them.  As long as they stay out of my cupboards. 

A quick check confirmed there were no signs of mice in my cupboards, by the way.  There is nothing worse than finding mouse poop in with the silverware.  :gag:

The cat, of course, was sleeping elsewhere at the time and was thoroughly unaffected by the whole hoopla.  Mouse running around in her room and she does nothing?  I fired her on the spot.  She yawned at me.