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The mouse is winning. After Sunday night's glimpse of the mouse in my bedroom and then seeing it zip through the
dining room yesterday morning, I didn't see it at all. Mice are stealthy like that. They make a brief appearance than they are gone...until they show up again and scare the bejeebies out of you!
Last night around10:30, my daughter made an appearance at the bedroom door. " I saw the mouse. "Where was it? " It was in
Joe's mouth." (Joe is our 13 year old, indoor, 'fraidy cat) Joe? She proceeded to tell us that she was on her computer and not paying attention to Joe, when he walked up to her. She was startled when she saw a tail hanging out of his mouth. The fact that she was startled, startled Joe who promptly dropped the mouse, which unfortunately happened to still be alive. The mouse beat a hasty retreat, thanking God for second chances, as he ran for his life under the bed. Joe took off after him. My daughter claimed she did not know the current location of the mouse. At this point I must say, I am highly impressed with Joe. He might be elderly, and afraid of his own shadow, but he still has some gumption left in him.
Last night I heard a mouse in the
kitchen ceiling. Probably the same one I heard in the the ceiling of the pantry. I started to talk to the rogue mouse somewhere above my head. "Listen up fur ball, this is not a mouse house. Get out, or all bets are off. You think you are so smart, but I've got news for you...YOU ARE A MOUSE. Your brain is a lot smaller than mine. I will outwit you. I will get you. By the way, you better not be pooping all over my family's stuff in the attic."
I've never had this kind of problem before (multiple
mice). My family and I lived in an old farmhouse until I was 5 years old. I do remember that we had caught a mouse in the kitchen and I cried because the mouse had died. As a preschooler I didn't understand the joy of catching a rodent. We moved to a rancher that my parents had built, out in the woods. No mice. Not once in the 14 years I lived there. The reason was we had
snakes. Lots of snakes. Snakes eat mice. Now, I don't know that I was thrilled with snakes either...but, they did take care of the mice or any other
rodents near our house. The snakes were outside in the wild, by the way. We didn't have snakes inside. If that had been the case, my mom would have died of a heart attack a long time ago.
My late husband and I rented a house in the city. It was a beautiful, older stone house. One Saturday afternoon I was on the phone when I saw a furry flash across the kitchen floor. I didn't want to scream into the phone so I climbed on the dining room chair to finish my conversation, all the while dancing around and flailing my arms at my husband while pointing at the kitchen. He probably was wondering why he had chosen to marry a woman that was obviously insane. As soon as I got off the phone, I told him that we had a mouse. He did not seem as upset as I was. Men. Puh-leeze. They don't appear as alarmed about filthy, stinkin' rodents as I am. What's with that?
The house that I lived in in
Knoxville, TN. only had one mouse incident. A field mouse got in under the garage door. I laid traps in the garage. It was a veritable landmine. I caught him on a glue trap. He was teeny tiny. I didn't want to touch him so I picked the entire trap up and tossed it in the woods. Now, I lived in the city. The only mouse inside was that one. I did have a
RAT problem outside. The rats were huge, and much scarier than mice. These rats would eat my dog's food. This just goes to prove that
Walmart dogfood will bulk up rats. Big time. They'd stand on their hind legs and stare at me as if to say, "Where's the chow, lady?". I ended up poisoning those suckers. (away from the dog or food rest assured)
So, this puts me back to our new house here in
Ohio. Yes, we live in a farm field. Yes, I realize that there are field mice. I just didn't expect the influx from outside. I am a grown woman. I should not be bothered by a mouse the size of my little finger...BUT, I am. This is a battle I intend to win.
Let the games begin.
