Ding Dong! The mouse is dead!

Ding Dong! The mouse is dead! Which old mouse? The icky mouse!
Update for those of you who were aware of our bold mouse situation - it is dead. We used a variety of different traps to catch the dreaded thing, and in the end, the ol' snap trap did the trick. We had the environmentally friendly trap, the snap trap, and some type of trap that electrocuted the mouse when it walked in to get food. The pesky critter was licking the food off the snap traps, but not setting them off, so we were getting desperate!

I saw a mouse in our garage the first week we moved in, and told the landlord about it. Nothing happened, and it managed to get in our house (twitch!). All in all, it took 2 weeks to catch it once it was in the house! We set traps as soon as we saw it. The little dude was either very dumb or very smart, but finally stopped walking out into the dining room and living room in the evenings. I was all for catching it alive and releasing it somewhere far, far away (don't ask - I'm just weird that way. I wish I wasn't). It had a chance, but decided not to enter those traps. Once we found out it had been in the kids cutlery drawer, it was war! We called our landlord (who had the great response of, "So, what do you want me to do?" Take care of it! You own the place! It was here before we moved in!), and then pest control. Pest control dude only found evidence of one mouse, and thought it was trying to find it's way out. My dad thought the same thing. Pest control dude also said a snap trap would get him fast. A week later it finally happened. So much for fast. Mouse dude was either a white-footed mouse, or a deer mouse. It was big and had white feet, a white belly, and a two-toned tail. Bleah! Either way, it was one of the mice around here that can carry the hantavirus. Pest Control dude told me that mice aren't disease carriers. Ha! So much for that theory. There are reasons he's not a stock broker on Wall Street.

I am not the kind of person who freaks out at a mouse in the house. Don't get me wrong - I do not like it. I don't sleep well knowing a critter is roaming my kitchen. Especially since I have young children. But I don't freak out. However, I must admit some disappointment in myself that must involuntarily shriek out at the site of a mouse in my house. This has happened before, and I shrieked then, too. It's kind of like being in a haunted house at Halloween. I jump, I scream - I don't want to, but my body just reacts that way. I thought I'd mature with age, but so far that hasn't happened (that hasn't happened in a lot of areas in my life, but we won't go there). It's a good thing I'm not a farmer's wife! I don't know if I could handle all the critters that go hand-in-hand with farms! Today I did let a tarantula crawl on my arm, but that was at the Butterfly Pavilion, and it was to prove to Brandon that Rosie the tarantula isn't scary (and he let her crawl on his hand! I'm so proud!). Still - I shriek at a mouse! A mouse who then freaks out and hides underneath my unsealed cabinetry (are most kitchen cabinets open on the bottom so mice can hide there? Yes, according to Pest Control dude. No according to my sane friends). I'm not really sure what's wrong with me.

Brandon keeps asking for a cat. I'm all for it, once we own our own place. Mice better beware. If I have to, I'm enrolling my cat in mouse-hunting class. Heck, I'll teach him myself! I'm sure I'll get mice again. I've heard it's common around here. But my cat will be trained. He'll be a Marine - always faithful! Always ready!