Update:
We have now caught four mice. We caught the piano mouse, one in the pantry, and two by the stove. I found the hold they're coming in from - the garage backs up to the stove, and there's a sort of obvious entry point. If it's obvious for me, it's wide open for a mouse!! :) So I'm keeping the traps set. It still sounds like there are some more in the ceiling above the office. But I can't tell if it's mice, or just creaking. I'm guessing mice. The battle rages on....
We have a mouse in our house. Actually, I'm quite sure we have several of them, since where there is one, there are always more. A couple of weeks ago we caught one climbing around in our pantry. I had seen a couple of droppings, so I knew there was one lurking around. Well, Collin came to me while I was on the computer at about 6:30 in the morning, looking like he'd seen a ghost, and said, "Mommy, there's a mouse in our pantry. I saw it, and it has a furry tail!" I went, and sure enough! A mouse scurrying around.
Well, he ran into a box, so I grabbed the garbage can, tossed that box, mouse and all, into the can, and carried it to the back of our property where we let it free. BIg Mistake.
It told its friends. Upon inspection of the pantry, I found the mouse had been enjoying a smorgasbourg of delicasies. I threw away the dry milk, the oatmeal, the barley, three packages of Ramen noodles, the flour, some rice, some beans, some pancake mix, and a few other things I cant remember right now.
My kids felt violated, and were slightly traumatized by the mouse incident. It wasn't more than a few hours later that Collin had designed his own mouse trap. He built a house in the basement, and made it the coziest place a mouse could ever hope for. "It's going to be so so so cozy and warm that the mouse will go in and never want to come out again!" Claire had another idea. She grabbed the peanut butter, glue, and paper plate. Because everyone knows mice love peanut butter, and when it came to get the peanut butter, it would stick to the glue. Very practical. Spencer had yet another idea. He stood in the middle of the kitchen and said loudly. "Jonas has a nicer house. Its bigger and there's more food." Just when I was about to scold him for complaining yet again about his situation in life, he whispered to me, "I said that so the mouse will hear it and go to their house instead of ours!"
I died laughing.
Fast forward another week, and we still have a mouse. In fact, I believe we have a few of them. The pantry invasion continues. We have started storing cereal and other precious items in the refrigerator. When we went to the store to buy mouse traps, Spencer went up to an employee in the aisle and said, "Um, excuse me? Do you have any idea where the mouse traps are, because we have tens of thousands of mouses in our house!"
Claire just keeps telling us she "SAW ONE" with eyes as big as saucers, and mouth as wide and round as a golf ball. We relive her shock and horror every time. Collin's having bad dreams about mice.
This isn't any ordinary mouse! Those traps were set with peanut butter. They were the wooden spring-and-clamp kind - the kind that has claimed all too many human thumbs through the years. The next morning, they were both empty. The mouse had taken the peanut butter, but the traps were still sitting there, waiting for a critter to show up. Time for plan B.
I have found droppings now in the dining room, which is actually our school room where the piano sits. I only mention the piano because when I went to close it yesterday., I found a half-eaten bean and mouse droppings in the key-cover-thingy. Yes, that's right: a mouse is living in our piano. When I saw that, I banged on the keys as loud as I could. A minute later, we heard it rattling around in there, so we must have awakened it. Then I got this awful mental picture of a piano hammer killing the mouse on its way down, and a putrid smell following from inside the piano a few days later, so I ordered a stop on the musical attack.
A little while later, sitting in the office, I could hear one scurrying around in the ceiling. Even worse, I could hear it squeaking. Time for an all-out offensive. I went to Wal Mart and bought the super-duper safe-and-quick set mouse traps. I bought six of them. I put them all over the place. My children's eyes were dancing with glee when we spoke of killing innocent little animals.
This morning when I woke up I had to check the traps. I had heard a few snaps during the night, so I was sure we had caught a few. Sure enough, the one right on the floor by the stove had a mouse! Clamped by his nose, and dead as a doornail!
Ha!! Gotcha sucker!!
Then I peeked in the pantry. Sure enough, there was another mouse, right next to the trap. I could see it's little butt and tail. So we caught two. Thank God. Now I only hope the rest of their family organizes a hungry search party.
When I told Spencer we caught two, he went to see, naturally. He only found one. I told you this was no ordinary mouse. The one in the pantry played dead next to the trap when it saw me coming. The trap was still set, and no mouse in sight. I bet he even ate the peanut butter. Butter Fingers. It's probably the same mouse the was rudely awakened in the piano yesterday, because the peanut butter is gone from that trap too. Or maybe it's just a whole family of professional mouse thieves.
The Saga of Butter Fingers, my nemesis, to be continued......
