Late last night, I realized I’d left a pot of sauteed kale on the stove waiting to cool. So I got out of bed, went downstairs, and surprised a little mouse who scampered over the stove and disappeared.
That little fucker turned out to be hiding in the corner of the counter — I could see his silhouette, and when I poked at him to confirm I wasn’t imagining it, he ducked behind my jar of spoons. I could see his verminous little tail sticking out.
By this time the enraged yelling had roused tallasiandude as well, and he came down to see what was going on. I wasn’t letting that little critter out of my sight, but I was too tired to also think up a way to catch him and get rid of him. But tallasiandude had the presence of mind to grab a little trap, box him in, and catch him… and then throw the rotten little marauder outside.
There were tiny little mousepoops on my stove. EEEEEEEWWWW. And I decided I couldn’t be sure the pot of kale was unscathed, so that had to go too. Hateful little bastards, mice. Yuck.
Hateful little bastards is right.
We routinely saw mice for the first seven years we lived in this house. We trapped them like crazy. I think one day I caught 5 mice with one trap in about 90 minutes. Their population would ebb and flow, but it would never take long for a clean cupboard to accrue a scattering of mouse waste.
Finally, our next door neighbor got a very friendly cat who started visiting us once in a while. I have seen neither mouse nor mouse-trace since the first day Cosmos walked through our door about a year ago. Since I’m allergic, I’d resisted the whole cat thing. But a little sneezing and snuffling once in a while (she only visits once a week or so) is a small price to pay for a rodent-free existence, you ask me.
dude, we HAVE a cat. (see above, actually) it’s just that he’s elderly, slightly senile, moderately deaf, and a little bit lazy. these mice are not frightened. it’s a good thing kitty is freaking adorable, because he’s useless as a hunter.
🙁