Eek!!! It's a Mouse. . .I hope!

First a Disclaimer: It's been a really long time since I posted here and I can't promise that I will anymore consistent this time around. But I hope that you all enjoy it while it lasts.

Now on to the mouse. . .

Approximately a month ago while I was home with the worst sinus infection I have had in a long time, I walked into the kitchen and saw general movement in the dishwasher vicinity. . .when I looked closer whatever it was was gone. So I, being somewhat delirious and not AT ALL in the mood to deal with a mouse, allowed my brain to convince me I didn't see anything for about a week. . . About a week later I came around the corner again and this time there was no mistaking a mouse scurrying across the floor towards the dishwasher. So I being the kind and humane person I am went to the Ace hardware to buy some traps that would allow me to catch the mouse and release him back into the wilderness unharmed. So I come home with my traps bait them with my favorite treat (peanut butter) and set them around the kitchen and specifically near the dishwasher. . .(quick side not about the dishwasher I was unaware till the mouse moved in that there is a good 3" x 3" hole at the base of the cabinet between the diswasher and the wall, this is where my little friend likes to hide). So I go about my business and no more than 5 minutes later I hear movement in the kitchen and decide to wait a few minutes to make sure the mouse gets caught. Upon walking into the kitchen I discover that the mouse trap closest to the dishwasher is gone! G-O-N-E GONE!

Time to call in reinforcements. I call Linda, who proceeds to tell me to get on the floor look in the whole and see if I can see the mouse trap. To which I responded in a high pitched screech "Have you LOST your mind, I am not getting on the floor and looking in that hole what if the mouse comes out and attacks my FACE?!?!?!?" Linda through laughter tells me it will not attack my face. . .however I am not taking any chances. . .and proceed to tell Linda that I am not sticking my face down there, I am not sticking a broom under there, I am pretty much not doing anything without someone to hold my hand. After Linda tells me that she is sorry she can't come over I demand that she send her 18 year old son over to help.

Dallas to the rescue. Dallas you fears nothing takes immediate charge of the situation and asks for a wire hanger, then proceeds to dismantel it and starts poking around under the sink and around the dishwasher. At first glance Dallas doesn't see anything so we go to the basement where we look to see if we can figure out how the mouse got in, again finding nothing Dallas goes back upstairs to continue poking under the sink while I stayed in the basement looking for my snap traps. After I found the snap traps I am coming around the corner to head up the stairs when I hear Dallas say, I see it here it comes. I respond by looking up and seeing a mouse staring me in the eye. I proceed to scream like I am being murdered and back away from the stair as the mouse comes down through the basement and into a corner. I am sure at this point Dallas is apalled that his Mom's best friend is this nuts over a mouse but I can't help it. Anyway Dallas helps me A) calm down and B) get some traps baited and set and we place them around the house. After a few minutes upstairs Dallas goes to check the traps before he leaves and finds the mouse is already checking out the traps so he waits, then the mouse skirts around the trap, so Dallas scares it back and places the trap in such a way that the mouse CAN NOT get by it without getting snapped. As he leaves he tells me "If he gets by that trap just give him a piece of cheese and welcome him home cause he deserves to live here". . .thanks Dallas not helpful.

Next day I come home and check the traps to find that the one strategically placed to get the mouse is once again GONE!!! And this wasn't a humane trap is was plan old snap trap. I tore up the basement looking for that damn trap and it's gone, can't find it anywhere. So now I am really freaking out thinking that mighty mouse is living in my basement and is virtually indestructable, and I will never get him to leave. Again on the phone in a panic with Linda hoping that the reason the traps is gone is because Dallas emptied it for me. No such luck.

But on what I thought was a positive note I had not heard or seen the mouse in the next couple of weeks so I foolishly thought maybe he left for more likely he got caught in a trap and drug it off before he died and I would be smelling him in a few days. Either way life was happy, until today when I heard commotion in the kitchen as Marv chased the mouse across the kitchen and almost had him his graps but just ran out of space. Damn the little bugger is back, but at least this time the cats are making an effort which is more than I can say for the previous 4 weeks.

 So the battle continues, and I have beefed up the mouse catching measures around here, and I am sure I will keep you all posted on what happens. But before I go some things NOT to say when talking to someone dealing with a mouse.

 "It'll never be over the reproduce faster than bunnies and there is probably already a nest in your house" "There's never only mouse ya know"
"Maybe it's not a mouse at all, maybe it's a shrew or a vole," or God Damn super mouse
"It's not like it's going to climb in bed with you at night"
And anything that sounds like a lecture about what one should have done to prevent the mouse from getting in in the first place. To late mouse is already in.

None of those things are helpfully and generally will get you hung up on yelled at.

As for now I will continue hunting the mouse, vole, shre, possum, racoon, or whatever is living in my house. Wish me luck :)