Chloe has never been a mouser. Squirrels. Rabbits. Cats. Anything outside she can chase is fair game (she caught the foot of a rabbit the other day). But mice? Nope. I think she just watches them run across the kitchen floor, if she sees them at all.
And because of Chloe, the non-mousing dog, we have to rely on non-poisonous means to get rid of mice. Our brother-in-law, an exterminator, gave us a type of trap last year but we can't remember how to set it. So glue traps it is.
Now, we seem to have very smart mice. They avoided the glue traps easily. Would go right around it, them--or maybe over them...
You know where this is going, don't you?
Fast forward to today. An extremely foggy day in northeast Iowa. Foggy enough we had a two hour delay. I was up at my normal time anyway. Time for an extra cup of coffee and some reading and commenting on stories from my creative writing class.
During my second cup of coffee and second class of stories, I heard a noise, a snap from the kitchen. Evilly I smiled, Gotcha I thought. I continued reading and enjoying my coffee.
About 8:00 I decided to take a shower and get ready for school. Two hour late starts are great mornings for accomplishing things at school. I wanted to get a jump start on things for next week. And, maybe, just maybe, I also thought, If I take a shower, and pretend like I'm going to school, maybe they will cancel. A three day weekend sure sounds nice. (Come on. Don't tell me you've never had that thought).
And sure enough, I check my phone and there is the message, CANCELLED.
Cool I think. I'll have a muffin and another cup of coffee.
Cue the creepy music
I put my cup under the Keurig and push the button. And there, behind the coffee maker,
MOUSE ON A GLUE TRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those exclamation points are not for excitement.
I'm not going to lie, I jumped and a small scream may have come from my mouth.
I grabbed my cup, inched over to the other counter, carefully avoiding looking at the coffee pot, and hurried to get the honey on my muffin and headed to the living room.
And now, here I sit. Breakfast done. Coffeeless. And waiting for hubby to take care of the mouse.
I hate the little critters and depend on hubby to do away with them. He was out of town recently and the trap went off and rattled around under the stove at 4:00 in the morning! So brave me covered my ears with the blankets and thought, "Die, die!" Next morning, empty trap! Thoughts of a wounded mouse dying in the walls were not reassuring.
ReplyDeleteNext night, hubby still gone, traps reset. Four AM, terrific noises from under the stove again! Ok, now what? Wounded mouse escaping, or venture out and check it out? I mustered up the courage to get up and peek under the stove, and the mouse, caught by a back leg, is valiantly trying to drag the trap and itself down the hole next to the wiring! Now I really can't back down, but no way am I touching that trap! So I went and propped open the front door, grabbed the long grill tongs, picked up the trap with the squealing mouse, and with averted eyes, tossed it out on the front porch! I called the barn cats, watched the mouse running around in circles on the porch, and went back to bed as the cat brigade came to help! Note to self, "Do not set mousetraps when husband is out of town!"