There's a Mouse in My House

Last night about 9:30pm, well after our little town has rolled up the sidewalks and shut off the red light on Highway 96, I sat here in the living room minding my own business.  I had my laptop and was snuggled down in my favorite chair.  I happened to pause long enough to change channels on the TV and that's when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  A little shadowy figure that hesitated as though it knew I had spied it and then when I focused fully upon it ran for all it was worth...a mouse.

Sigh.  We looked high and low for the mousetraps we'd bought last year but couldn't find them anywhere.  All we could find was the old fashioned wooden spring loaded type that nine times out of ten snaps the finger of the person who is trying to gently place it on the ground.  We struggled with that for a bit and finally gave up, after watching it pop about like it was possessed as we'd place it on the counter. 



After we turned on all the lights in the house so we could see wee mouse better should it decide to return along the same route, we agreed that we could do nothing more for the night...John did see the mouse scoot back along the wall and into the kitchen.  We kept our feet propped up as we watched TV.  No desire to find mouse running across our toes!

I won't tell you I lost sleep last night.  I didn't.  I did however, give myself a stern talking to.  I grew up in the country.  Mice in the house are standard in the fall of the year.  The contemplation of warmer quarters with better provisions are typical whether you're human or rodent, when you know colder months are ahead.  I cannot fault mouse for instinct.  I can, however, dislike mightily the housekeeping habits of a mouse.

I know they have no particular  bias against shredding an antique quilt or a vintage magazine for bedding.  They have no shame about chewing a hole into a box of crackers or cereal.  They use the restroom indiscriminately and they smell.  They have their young just anywhere at all, so you're likely to reach in for fresh napkins in a drawer of linens and find your fingers upon a pile of hairless newborns.  No, I do not like mice in my house at all.

So I slept last night without fear.  Today we went out and bought various items guaranteed to do their job.  We also bought steel wool to repack around pipes and we'll put screens over the gray water pipe that runs outdoors and over the dryer vent outlet.  I'll shake and empty any bags or boxes from the shed on the back deck before bringing items indoors and hopefully we'll prevent future roommates moving in.