Mouse in the House

Last week we had a mouse in the house. One morning we found a half-eaten piece of chocolate. I dismissed it thinking it must have been Nathan being a sneak. The second morning I found the same thing. I thought this strange. Thinking a little more, and looking over at Nathan eating dinner at that moment, I thought it was much too clever for even him. He's not a neat eater and when he wants something he makes it known. No evidence on him? Yeah right. Leo tried to convince me, though, that it must be Nathan! I gave in but I was not completely convinced. We decided to put another piece of chocolate out but on a higher shelf in the pantry - one Nathan definitely could not reach. The next morning - another piece of my dove dark chocolate destroyed. Game on.

We set a trap that night and went to bed. The next morning. Empty trap. I was secretly happy to not find a dead mouse first thing in the morning but also pissed this stupid rodent was still out there - somewhere! The next night we moved the trap. The first time we left it on the shelf where the scene of the crime took place. It was so much work to get back up there apparently. So we set it right at the foot of the pantry to make it nice and easy. We added peanut butter AND chocolate for good measure. Again, we set the trap and went to bed.

I had drifted off to sleep but Leo woke me only 30 minutes after we went to bed and said he heard a distinct snap. We got up to discover a little tail sticking out of the trap. GOTCHA! Gross. Yippee. But gross. We disposed of the little . . . uh hem . . . rodent. And so I was feeling much better.

Apparently the popular opinion is that if there is one there are several . . .

Tonight I was in the bedroom watching TV and Leo was in the Living Room watching football (don't you love our togetherness around here?) and Leo called to me. He would not call to me across the house and risk waking Nathan for no reason. I came in to see his standing on the couch. Haha.This makes me laugh knowing why now. He said he saw a mouse. Alarmed and no longer sleepy I put on some pants to deal with the situation. Using Nathan's little flashlight I looked where Leo saw #2 and there he was, under the table. He managed to get into the underside of the table and into the drawer. Leo opened the drawer and actually saw him inside. I was on top of the table and Leo was to the side and we tried to scare him out (colander in hand to catch the little . . . uh hem . . . rodent). He ran. We ran. We missed him. Ggrrr . . . Like I was going to get any sleep!

Leo was tentatively standing behind the couch scanning the area. And spotted him. #2 ran behind the TV towards the fireplace. There is a space under the gas fireplace (that will soon be covered up) that he was able to run into. A light didn't find him and we have no idea if this could possibly be a real egress or just a hiding space. We set the trap and put it in front of the fireplace. I had said to put it near the pantry again. But Leo logically said "but this is a different mouse". So obviously he has different motives!

While standing around, with the light off to encourage him, while sitting here blogging actually, we heard the snap. Gotcha #2! He found his way in and we had to listen to his little feet kick before he finally died. Oh god that was awful. And kinda funny. We're surprised he came out with so much activity going on instead of waiting until after it was dark and quiet in the living room. But I figure he must have been hungry.

So now I feel a little bit better - there was no way I was sleeping well if #2 was running around. But now I'm curious about his friends. I have people coming over for an Uppercase Living Open House tomorrow evening. I'm hoping there aren't more hungry ones waiting in the wings. I don't think I'll sell much with a mouse running under the feet of my guests.